Prayer and blessing scams
Prayer and blessing scams are when criminals target people with religious or spiritual beliefs, stating they can assist in healing them or their family members that have curses or illnesses.
How prayer and blessing scams work
In prayer and blessing scams, victims are told a healer or spiritual leader has the capability to help them but will need the victims to bring cash or jewellery to be blessed. The cash or jewellery is then placed into a bag and swapped out for a bag of rice or bottles of water. Victims are warned not to open the bag for a period of time or the ‘prayer chain’ will be broken. Offenders will sometimes continue asking for money for the prayers and blessings to continue.
Perpetrators of these scams generally target victims that are female, elderly and often from culturally and linguistically diverse communities of which they speak the same language.
Psychics
Similar online scams are also occurring where victims search the internet for psychics and are then scammed. Once victims transfer the required amount offenders block the victim and stop communicating with them.
What to do if you encounter a prayer or blessing scam
If you encounter a blessing or prayer scam it is important to record all contact from the offender including profile information, photos, names, phone numbers, email, usernames or social media handles and report the incident to your local Police or report at www.cyber.gov.au/report-and-recover or Police Assistance Line 131 444.
To report a scam or get further information on this type of scam, visit Scamwatch.