I cannot believe Peter Popoff is still around, especially after James Randi exposed him as a complete fraud in The Faith Healers. Yet here I sit in my hotel in Virginia watching a pseudo Christian infomercial where Popooff attempts to get viewers to order a free sample of Miracle Spring Water, which is supposed to evoke a Divine Transfer of economic good fortune to your Divine Bank Account. Sounds like gibberish to me.His infomercial is full of testimonials from people saved from bankruptcy or awarded unlooked for economic gifts. The problem is that most of the people in the infomercial look dirt poor and dwell in the lower economic classes. You can read some of these unbelievable testimonials at peterpopoff.org.
So – get yourself a small packet of free Miracle Spring Water, use as directed, and then order a monthly supply at the all time low price of - whatever Peter Popoff can take you for.
Peter Popoff is a total nutball and quite possibly a criminal too.
Technorati Tags:
Nutballs, Faith Healers, Christians, Religion, Skeptic, Fraud
Seriously, what is wrong with him?! I was watching the infomercial one night and was absolutely appalled but laughing hysterically. It's so incredibly ridiculous, I can't believe it's happening in 2006. That there are people who believe this!? And your observation is identical to mine: they all seem like poor, uneducated, lower-class citizens. Harsh but true. And he wants *their* money. What the hell?!?! So I called for my Miracle Spring Water sample, and I got it. And I continue to get things even though he has received no response or money from me in almost a year. The letters and "gifts" slowed over time, but in the beginning the letters were VERY manipulating and supersticious. I can see how someone in a desperate place in their lives would go for it. So so so very sad. I don't think this is what Christianity is supposed to be based on. Not that many other churches are better...
ReplyDeleteKelly Media Group (KMG, Inc.) was founded in 2003 by Jason Cardiff. Kelly Media Group is a direct marketing agency. Anyone who has ever received junk mail in their mailbox will know what direct marketing is.
ReplyDeleteKelly Media’s website states,”Why would you chance the future of your business on an advertising company that has to outsource your mailing campaigns to a 3rd-party fulfillment house. It is imperative that you place your direct mailing endeavors into the hands of a proven direct mailer, like Kelly Media Group.”
Why would you chance your future of your business on a fraudulent bag of manure like Jason Cardiff is a better question.
One of the areas specifically mentioned on Kelly Media Group’s website is “Church Marketing”. And boy does Kelly Media know how to market for the church. You see, the founder of Kelly Media, Jason Cardiff, also happens to be the son-in-law of Peter Popoff.
Peter Popoff, who in 1987 was making $4.3 million per MONTH, is a self proclaimed televangelist and claims to be a faith healer. He was a widely popular minister in the 1980s.
Yes, Peter Popoff, disgraced faith healer, and his collaborator wife, Elizabeth, are on the air trolling for dollars. On cable infomercials, Popoff promotes the Peter Popoff World Outreach Ministry, pleading for viewers to order his book, Prosperity Thinking: God’s Dynamic Forces That Bring Riches to
YOU! and get his new free, tiny vial of “Miracle Spring Water.” Intercut is scenes from his revival show where he lays hands on the afflicted, allegedly curing all sorts of medical problems (wink! wink!) and, oddly, supposedly freeing a woman’s jailed son.
Also intercut are scenes of Elizabeth reading “testimonials” of the cures from viewers healed by the
water or by Popoff through the TV.
Popoff, was exposed by James Randi on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1986. Randi and friends found out that Elizabeth was transmitting information to Peter, who wore a hidden earpiece
camouflaged as a hearing aid (very strange for a man who could supposedly cure all manners of illness).
Randi said, “I explained how Popoff had sent Reeford Sherrill (his ‘front man’), Volmer Thrane, and his wife, Elizabeth, into the audience in advance, equipped with transmitters to gather and broadcast the needed data backstage to the reverend.”
During the show, Elizabeth would prompt him again on the problems claimed by certain people in the audience. It then looked like he knew a person’s name and affliction as if given the information by
God! During one part of the revival section of the new show, Popoff gets worked up and touches the foreheads of afflicted persons, who usually fall backwards into the arms of one “volunteers”.
Youtube hosts numerous videos of this fraud, including James Randi on the Johnny Carson show in which Popoff’s wife Elizabeth, can actually be heard revealing audience member’s names and their illnesses to Peter via radio signals sent to the earpiece. Elizabeth can be heard to say, “Hello, Petey. I love you! I'm talking to you. Can you hear me? If you can't, you're in trouble, 'cause I'm talking as well as I can! I'm looking up names right now."
In one recorded session Elizabeth Popoff speaks: "Reeford's got a hot one!" (Laughter.) "Reeford's so excited! He came running in back here and scared us half to death! You ready for a hot one? Okay! Want a hot one? Hot one! Hot off the press! Ruby Lee Harris. Ruby Lee. She is standing in the far back where there's no chairs. (Long pause) "...Ruby Lee Harris. She's against the back wall. She's got lumps in her breast. You might want to whisper it - have her walk down! Have her run up there. Run! Oh! Look at her run! (Loud laughter) "she's got knots in her breast." (Laughter and giggles.) A home run! A home run!" (Then, later on, giggles are heard, and Pam speaks.) "At any rate, she should kick him in the face!" (giggles) (Elizabeth speaks.) "Pam says to make her - Pam thinks that you should have her kick him in the face (Giggles.)
Elizabeth Popoff and several aides would scout the audience looking for "hot" ones. They would ask them, "Is Jesus going to heal you? And what's your name, and where do you live? Have you had this condition long?" They would write all this information down on cards, which later on Elizabeth would recite during the service via her concealed transmitter. She carried the power source in a large handbag, and the transmitter and microphone were hidden under her blouse.
Peter Popoff claimed that the video footage shown on Johnny Carson was a fake and that the woman who was said to be his wife Elizabeth was really an actor hired by NBC.
When the Popoff ministry was asked whether Popoff used a secret receiver in his ear, Janice Gleason, a public relations consultant for the Popoff organization, said that the electronic receiver in Popoff's ear was used only to keep in touch with the television crew. (In the hours of taped transmissions, there was not one communication with the television crew.) Gleason said she believed that the woman's voice heard on the Tonight Show was faked. But Popoff later admitted that it was his wife who was communicating with him
Peter Popoff also declared bankruptcy when his viewers began leaving him in droves after the revelation of fraud.
So it’s now 2009 and how does all of this tie in with the Kelly Media Group?
Nick Popoff, the son of Peter “fraud” Popoff works as consultant for Kelly Media, and Peter’s son-in-law Jason Cardiff is the founder of Kelly Media Group. Furthermore, the PeterPopoffMinistries website was created by Kelly Media Group.
If you make a donation on Popoff’s website (to “fulfill our mission of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to the world” of course), take a look at whose e-mail account (now closed) the funds are processed with:
This is the actual code from the website donation page:
id="x_merchant_email" value="jason.cardiff@earthlink.net""x_description" value="Donations - Peter Popoff Ministries" />
Yes, Jason Cardiff handles donations sent to Peter Popoff. This entire family is crooked and fraudulent.
Let’s take a look at how much money this family made in 2005. The information comes from Ministrywatch.com which tracks questional religious organizations.
People United for Christ, Inc./ Peter Popoff
Known Compensation per IRS Form 990:
Peter Popoff: 2005: $686,932
Elizabeth Popoff: 2005: $261,146
Nickolas Popoff: 2005: $189,293
Amy Cardiff (daughter): 2005: $183,330
Kelly Media Group, Inc./ son-in-law to Peter Popoff: $1,948,458
Other organizations: (1) Peter Popoff Ministries, LTD, (2) First Point (United
Kingdom), (3) Word for the World, (4) Peter Popoff Evang. Assoc-Canada.
Peter Popoff made $686,932 from donations received. His wife made $261,146.
Kelly Media Group made $1,948,458. That’s almost TWO MILLION dollars for web-hosting and direct mail services???
2006 incomes were slightly less for the Popoff family:
Peter Popoff Ministries $23,556,469
Peter Popoff . . . . . . . . . 628,732
Elizabeth Popoff $203,000
Nickolas Popoff $182,000
Amy Cardiff $176,000
Taking a closer look at the direct mail services of Kelly Media Group. People who sign up at Peter Popoff’s ministry website, are asked for their mailing address and email address. Once the information is filled out, people begin to receive up to two-dozen postal letters from Peter Popoff.
Each letter is personally addressed to the person (ex: "Robert, God has given me something that I must give you," the letter begins). Computer-generated type is made to look like handwriting and only the names are changed from one letter to the next.
A former Kelly Media Group employee states, “while working for Kelly Media, which is an advertising agency owned and operated by Peter Popoffs son-in-law Jason Cardiff, it was my job to enter prayer requests and donations into a database. These entries into the database would generate a letter to be sent back to the person who wrote in. It would print up a detailed letter, which appears to be handwritten by Peter Popoff himself telling people that he was praying for them, and their particular problems.
The letters begin, 'The other day I was praying for you, and decided to go to a coffee shop where I knew I could focus, and everytime I said your name I was embraced by the holy spirit.'
Do you really think Peter Popoff spends even 15 seconds reading through the hundreds of letters that he receives?
Popoff’s staff take the money out that Peter Popoff has asked the people for, writes the prayer requests on the envelope, and sends them to Kelly Media Group who type them into the database. The coffee shop line quoted above will be mass produced, word for word on each letter for about sixty thousand people at a time. All the while people think that they are sending him money to advance the work of god, and that in return he is praying for them. Peter Popoff is not only not praying for these people, he doesnt even know who they are.
Peter Popoff, Elizabath Popoff, Jason Cardiff are enjoying the good life for now, based on the dollars donated by people who don’t know any better. This family engage in fraud and questionable practices to conduct their business.
As a final testimony to the dishonest and questionable practices of Kelly Media Group and the Popoff’s, let’s take a look at the Direct Response Advertising Watch Dogs Of America. This group is touted as “a high-end elite group of executives that watch and study advertising executives around the globe for performance and client results.” Their website is here: www.directresponsewatchdogsofamerica.com
Imagine that, a group that takes time to watch and study advertising executives to see their performance and results. What would be the motivating factor here? How would this group earn an income? What else do they do?
The website for DRAWDA really doesn’t say much else about them. Portions of the website are incomplete as if the web developer stopped halfway through designing the site.
DRAWDA does mention though, Jason Cardiff. In fact DRAWDA actually names Jason Cardiff as an “up and coming direct response television advertising executive for 2008.”
Here is what they have to say about Mr. Cardiff:
Jason is President and founder of many companies Worldwide but best known for Kelly Media Group. Kelly Media Group is a California based direct response marketing think tank responsible for some of the most impressive successful marketing stories of the past 5 years. Jason Cardiff will tell you that he is only as good as his weakest link on his team, but his team consists of some of the brightest minds in the Unites States or perhaps the world. Offices are strategically located worldwide with the head office in Upland (California), Dallas (Texas), Vancouver (Canada), London (England), Sydney (Australia) and the newest office KMG Asia in Da Nang (Vietnam) www.kmgasia.com
That’s quite the honorable mention for someone who is engaged in defrauding religious worhsippers.
If you do a WHOIS of the website you will find that the website’s registrar has been hidden from public view.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: DIRECTRESPONSEWATCHDOGSOFAMERICA.COM
Created on: 27-Aug-08
Expires on: 27-Aug-09
Last Updated on: 27-Aug-08
Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration DIRECTRESPONSEWATCHDOGSOFAMERICA.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2598
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration DIRECTRESPONSEWATCHDOGSOFAMERICA.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2598
However if we pull up the WHOIS record for DRAWDA **BEFORE** they hid their domain’s registration information, we find this:
:
Kelly Media Group
2022 W 11th St
Upland, California 91786
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: DIRECTRESPONSEWATCHDOGSOFAMERICA.COM
Created on: 27-Aug-08
Expires on: 27-Aug-09
Last Updated on: 27-Aug-08
Administrative Contact:
Cardiff, Jason jasonj@kellymediagroup.com
Kelly Media Group
2022 W 11th St
Upland, California 91786
United States
(877) 788-8463
Technical Contact:
Cardiff, Jason jasonj@kellymediagroup.com
Kelly Media Group
2022 W 11th St
Upland, California 91786
United States
(877) 788-8463
Domain servers in listed order:
NS25.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS26.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Registry Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Way to go Jason Cardiff, inventing a bogus group and registering it in your OWN COMPANY’S NAME just to present yourself with an even more bogus mention as an up and coming executive.
Finally, if you visit Youtube you will find videos of Cardiff giving a “tour” of the KMG warehouse and product fulfillment center. In the video, shot by an amateur cameraman who clumsily holds a camcorder, Cardiff touts his business while the cameraman pretends to be impressed with the otherwise boring warehouse. The entire video is clearly orchestrated and the cameraman is really another employee of KMG.
Avoid the Kelly Media Group at all costs or anything with the Popoff name.
This ia what i see.Alot of people who like to judge,have there own way,dont appreciate the people who go distances for them,love them,be examples to them,stand in the gap for them,speak for there rights,take the time,give an ear to there cry,regardless of there pain.I see you thinking only of what you can get from them,only if it is on your terms,weather good or bad.Taking advantage,pleasure in there pain,those who forgive,turn the other cheak,give all they have,love you as a result,you turn away,steal from,complain about,call frauds.Your only good to us,when it means you benifit from it,or prosper as a result,you only desire the easy way out.
ReplyDeleteanonymous said... I'am christiian faith, when I pray in my room later God he give the vision at night or during the time I asking to the Lord. God said in my spirit to me Pastor Popof he is the Lay , deshonest, stupid, ignorant. He no pray, no fast, I no believe supposed Pastor, Somebody need put this Family in the Jail. When God to this World everybody see the Popof Idiot.He need Arrepentice in not need play with God , and also with the People. thanks
ReplyDeleteI want Report this pastor With the Justice Department soon, and also bring this to the News paper.
Just wanted to sharte that Popoff gave a personlized (2) ticket to see him at New York Marriott Downtown Brooklyn Bridge, on Sunday, Septmeber 19th and we were unable to get in due to all the so called VIP passes he gave, when we got there, we found out that he had let in people that didn't even have tickets, obviously he doesn't know how to manage his VIP's. He wasn't curtious enough to at least he could have let his VIP's in first then let the public in. His staff has poor managing skills. It was a waist of time taking $50.00 dollar cab from the Bronx to Brooklyn.
ReplyDeleteMost people who are children of Jesus Christ are not afraid to give there name.Rev peter popoff is not a fraud,im living proof of this,infact its proven after 30 years that hes my biological father.Since age 16,ive been doing research.Police even have,and know its true.Theres proof everywhere,though it took many years to put facts together.Its been a jurney unlike any other.I apoligize for any inconvenionce concerning our jurney that may have concerned anyone.As ya know everyone has a jurney and story to tell.As God brings us to the facts the truth always ends up prevailing.Noone can hide the truth or prove the truth faulse ever.Jesus Christ is the truth life and way.IN JESUS CHRIST NAME NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES AMEN AMEN AND AMEN.
ReplyDeletethe other morning was the first time i ever heard of this peter popoff, had no idea who he was. anyway i was watching the show and i saw him yelling and putting his hands on peoples heads and wow..a miracle they can walk with no pain, some people found money. how can anyone listen to this man, and send him money. the problem with all this is that there are true believers of the lord and what the lord can do for them. this man has taken these poor people's beliefs for his profit! HOW DARE HIM!! HE TAKES JESUS'S NAME IN VAIN, DONT PEOPLE SEE THAT!. every person in the world are looking for miracles, for love, family, money, and sickness. the bastard is taking advantage of these people. there's one thing of preaching your beliefs, but when you are telling people you are the man who jesus's talks to and can perform these miracles...its a lie!!!! he and his family is living it up on all the money that these people have given to him, while people who need true miracles are receiving nothing..he needs to be taken off the air, and stopped by the law. his so call miracle bullshit act needs to come to an end..see things right now in my life..i need big miracles, but i go to church and pray to the lord in his house and pray for my miracles. no matter how long it takes i know he hears my cries and will help me. so please no one send a penny to this man anymore. he's a big big fake. where are the state and federal people going after him for the fraud he is and im sure he doesn't pay one cent in taxes!!!! all i can is GOD HELP HIM!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIve heard of this man couple of times. Ive seen him on tv couple of times i see that people are in titled to their opinions but am taking a chance no harm in trying and seeing for yourself if it doesnt work then i learned from my mistake because at this moment a miracle seems like what i really need but i do try to pray as often as i can and hoping that my worrys can disappear so it lead me here if it works thank god if it doesnts i will pray for this man and may god forgive him for what hes doing.
ReplyDeleteIts now 2013 and hes still at it.
ReplyDeleteWell my mother has been writing and sending what she could afford to this man a long time since i was a kid this is sad news for me more because she believes in this man got me believing in this man only to be a fraud i hope God punishes him
ReplyDelete