But, can they cure my impotence?

@linus: Yes, but that's a lie.

i'd like them to turn my left hand into a BlackBerry.

I really hope I don't get disemvoweled for this because I mean it in all sincerity: why would anybody trust a website to perform magic for them for a fee?

If a website offered to make somebody "saved by Jesus" for, say, $200, would anybody trust them? I'd hope not.

So here's something to remember: religions take faith, businesses take money and contracts, so the two don't mix. You cannot pay for a miracle.

How much for love? The deluxe love that is, cuz I don't want no cheap love. I've seen what kind of girl a $40 love spell gets you, and I don't want to go down that road/escape that dungeon again.

@Ein2015: The same people who buy "carbon credits" would pay for a magic spell.

This would still be a scam even if they didn't charge money!

This isn't a scam: I paid them to grant me immortality, and so far it's working great!

@ratnerstar: prove it

@ratnerstar: ...I paid them to find a solution for all the guys with not so huge equipment ... and the next thing I knew my inbox was full of solutions... Hey, if you have the same problem I would bet your inbox got filled too.

I may have to blame the victim on this one - everybody knows magic takes a while to work, and the idea of fast spells is laughably insane.

Snark aside, kudos to Trae for looking into this on behalf of his users/readers.

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->:

Carbon credits aren't always bad.

Don't knock pollution credits for corporations... economically speaking, transferable pollution credits on an open market are a much better solution and end up cleaning more than the non-transferable credits.

How is this any different than other forms of obvious BS like horoscopes, palm reading, psychics, John Edward, lucky number printers, the lottery, and fortune cookies?

@Ein2015: To keep the family from killing us my wife and I baptized our children. One church wanted $170 for classes, we used a different church. Many Catholics seem to still believe that unless a person is baptized they cannot not enter heaven, rather enter limbo, though this seems not to be official dogma anymore. So yeah, it was an institution that asked for $170 for your child to be saved or rather so your relatives believed it so. Good old church getting people to pay money for the grace of God upon their souls, scam for the ages. :)

@Ein2015: I don't know what the website is, or even if it still exists, but a former boss of mine used to pay $15 for a liter bottle of mineral water that Christians would pray over and bless. They claimed it had healing properties and could even bring people back from the dead. One of the claims was that it would remove the "floaters" in your eyes, and he claimed it did, so he kept buying it. It's no $200, but people were buying it.

@agnamus: Well, these guys claim they can do things like clear up an STD or cure someone's cancer... and while, yes, you'd have to be very naive or gullible to fall for it, some people do. And these are people in need who are being preyed upon.

It's one thing to pretend to be able to see the future. It's another thing to pretend to be able to save someone's life.

I bet they had cake.

But it was a lie.

@Mr. Guy: John McCain can help you with that.

@Trae: I don't think you're feelin me. I avoided the most obvious charlatans because I thought my point didn't need the controversy associated. But, taking money (tithing) in exchange for an ineffective magical spell (prayer) is exactly what every single church in America does on a weekly basis. Why do we object to these people? Is it because their god isn't as popular as other gods?

@Ein2015: You obviously didn't take any religious history classes in school. Almost all the major Western religions have at one time or another asked for money in exchange for blessings, favor, indulgences, spells, whatever you want to call them. Ask my parents how much 10% of their income for the last 35 years works out to - I bet $200 is a bargain!

Was she related to the 1-900 Spells by Phone scam too?

nuknuknuk

@agnamus: Well they don't worship the Official American God! What can you expect, heathens should be tossed out of our country!

Wait, we don't have an official god? Oh right, I've got us mixed up with 16th-century Spain.

@Trae: Well put. Formerly thoughtful people can become irrational and very gullible when struck with desperate need. If there is a Hell, there is a special level cordoned off for the creatures like this who prey upon those most needy of individuals.

I don't get it.. A website offers to perform spells that will help you, and people who perform spells themselves go all vigilante over it? To me, this is like the ear candlers going after the leech people, saying they're flim flammers that are preying on people.

@6502programmer: Wicca is a Religion. Wiccans do "spells," but see Magick more equated to "prayer." I don't charge people to cast spells for them. It's my religion.

Now, there is a person out there pretending to be a Wiccan, offering to do "Spells" that, any Witch worth anything will tell you won't work and then charging money for them.

Think of it like this: This is more like a Christian going after a Flim Flammer Faith Healer.

@mzs: Did you eventually explain what "phosphenes" are to him.

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: D'oh I meant that for :@godlyfrog:

Rather than argue about the merits of religion I will just say that Trae deserves a pat on the back for warning his site's visitors about an obvious scam.

Also, pro-anorexics make me angry.

@BlondeGrlz: The difference here is that Wicca isn't exactly an organized -- and believe me, I'm using this word as loosely as possible -- "religion". Organized religious groups tend to agree on how tithes should be collected, and in what manner. Wiccans, on the other hand, are hardly even as organized as the New Age aisle at Border's that births them.

In fact, it is there that they pay their tithes, by purchasing the thousands of books that can't even agree on what their chosen "religion" is about.

When it comes down to it, it's very likely that the so-called scammers at fastspells.com believe themselves to be doing right by Wicca every bit as much as Trae believes that he is doing the right thing by attacking them. That's the problem with a buffet-style "religion" like Wicca: it allows its follwers to pick-and-choose what they will believe and what they won't to such an extent that you are unlikely to get a dozen randomly-selected Wiccans in a room that believe exactly the same thing.

@Trae: Yup.

I second what Trae said. We don't perform spells for money. Spells are = to prayer, though usually a little more effective.

For those of you who would like to clarify what Wicca/other Earth religions are and aren't, please check out the resource www.religioustolerance.org

@6502programmer: Its not the fact that the folks at FastSpells.com are casting spells, its that they're charging people outrageous amounts of money for services they will never render (12 hour spell?!), services that don't work, and services that are wrong in the eyes of Wiccans. Controlling people and/or changing people for your advantage is wrong in the eys of Wicca, and having these dudes call themselves Wiccan while taking advantage of others is, well...messed up.

...you are unlikely to get a dozen randomly-selected Wiccans in a room that believe exactly the same thing.

@processfive: I don't think you're gonna get 12 people of any religion that believe exactly the same thing.

@processfive: Except that the Fastspells.com people

1. Lie about who they are
2. Lie about where they are
3. Lie about a refund policy

If I thought they were just overcharging for something, I wouldn't have bothered digging. I would have just rolled my eyes and moved on. There are plenty of "Spell Farms" out there, some which might actually be run in good faith - but FastSpells.com isn't one of them. They're a scam.

Yay Trae! It's hard enough to get and keep credibility as a religion if you aren't mainstream, but this kind of scammy stuff always makes front page and thus undoes all manner of good works (and workings). As a Magickian, I may not agree fully with Wiccan methods, but "I will defend to the death your right" to practice them in peace and with respect. And yeah, I monetize my way through life without ever charging for magickal works.

@6502programmer: Not a valid analogy. Not only are the scammers damaging the reputation of legitimate magickal practitioners, they are seeding some nasty karma in their victims as well as stealing their money. The reason: sometimes what's RIGHT (ecologically and psychologically sound for the person) is in direct conflict to what their ego wants (and the ego is what's blind enough to be willing to pay for a magical cheat). By making that contract, they reinforce the ego in making its demands, which could cause that person all manner of future grief. Dirty work this site is doing, even if it is 100% scam there's not an ounce of magic involved. >:o[

@processfive: While in some cases that may be true, you'd get the same result with a roomful of Christians.

All faith is interpreted differently depending on the sect, path or tradition.

For example, Gardenarian, Alexandrian or Dianic Wicca all have very strict rules and are organized much like a Christian church with roles, titles and expectations.

@gingercorsair: More effective than prayer? What is your data supporting that claim?

I'm not defending the site, rather advocating that people have the freedom to choose for themselves how they can spend their money. Is that site any different than the iPhone app "I am Rich" that charged $899 for a copy of the program that people actually bought? How about state lotteries? You realize that there is less than a 2 million to 1 chance you will win the jackpot, yet people still play. And most of the people who buy lottery tickets are the very ones who shouldn't buy them.

@Rectilinear Propagation: Historically, if you put 12 religeous people in a room, everyone comes out believing the same thing. Unfortunatly, only about 3 actually exit :)

What trash! Who pays somebody else to do their workings? At least doing things yourself is free (at least for labor, maybe not parts, LOL) and has a much better chance of success.

And what kind of Karmic impact must it be having on the peddlers of these so-called spells?

@vastrightwing: i think the real problem came down to it was advertising on his personal website. and since ad space is sold more like through google than with real ad reps, he probably had very little if any choice on what would show up there unless he dropped ad space all together.

@Ein2015: "If a website offered to make somebody "saved by Jesus" for, say, $200, would anybody trust them? I'd hope not."

If they see it on a television station it becomes an entirely different matter.

@Ein2015: you sir are wrong! you can pay for a miracle every sunday (at 8:00am, 9:45am, 11:30am or "fast track" on saturdays where available). the first collection is for the church, the 2nd collection is for the mission, the 2 poor boxes at the entrance are for, well, the poor & the prayer card that someone purchased before the mass is to get their beloved out of purgatory.

but in the vestibule, you'll usually find a pietà. for a nominal price (recommended donation $4, NO PENNIES PLEASE!), you can light a candle, say a prayer & your miracle is heard (if the price is right).

c'mon...can't buy a miracle? we built an entire church on that very principle.

@mzs: Just mention the story of the condemned man on the cross next to Jesus who, I can pretty much guarantee, was not baptized and yet He is the only person in the New Testament that the Bible confirms went to Heaven.

I got fed up with one church I went to because we were looked down on because we put maybe a dollar a week in the plate. We were receiving charity baskets for crying out loud! We couldn't afford it. Read the story of the widow with the three pennies.

Spells, Wiccans etc. It seems like a pretty transparent scam. Same as the people who say "Send me money because Jesus told me you have to send me money or I will die." It's an obvious lie but sadly some people will buy anything.

@vastrightwing:
The "I am Rich" app provided the exact service it advertised. So do state lotteries. Both are of dubious value, but they are legitimate offers of service. This is not. Big difference.

And just because lotteries are (mostly) the law of the land, doesn't mean they are right. There are many people (myself included) who believe that state governments have no business competing in the gaming industry.

God forbid someone sell fake spells. It's like a snake oil salesman complaining that someone is selling worm oil...

churches offer 'prayer' services for a fee and make billions, why can't i get the same ultimate result by paying these scam artists who don't have thousands of years of propaganda behind them?

I'm just concerned that these people can't spell "magic" correctly. Perhaps a spelling spell is in order?

As a customer, I appreciate that it's ok to purchase multiple spellworks for one situation.

@anonymousryan: No, again, it's like a Christian complaining about lunatic faith healers.

@Clold: I know it's a bit pretentious, but most Neo-Pagans spell it Magick to differentiate it from Illusionist tricks.