The controversial 'Christian Prayer Center' (CPC), an online website with about 1.3 million Facebook likes, will close down after the site's organizer was found to have defrauded people of money in return for fake 'prayer requests,' according to reports.
Between 2011 to 2015, the website put up fabricated testimonials from 'Pastors' and from people supposedly helped by the prayers which won them lottery tickets, gave them payment for mortgages from God, help them have healthy babies, negative HIV tests, and remission from cancer. The CPC had a Spanish-language sister site, named Oracion Cristiana, which featured similar contents.
Washington's attorney general ordered last week that the owner of the website Benjamon Rogovy pay back about $7,750,000 taken from nearly 165,000 customers from over 400,000 transactions during the four years.
On the website, Rogovy claimed that CPC had multiple pastors, but actually it had none. Instead, he had hired several employees and independent contractors to run his organization.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson argued that he had violated state consumer laws.
"I believe in the power of prayer," said Ferguson. "What I do not believe in and what I will not tolerate is unlawful businesses that prey upon people "” taking advantage of their faith or their need for help "” in order to make a quick buck."
The CPC website took customers to a page which had the option of subscribing to "continued blessings" by enrolling into a monthly payment plan. But the office of attorney general stated that it was all displayed in such a manner so as to dupe the consumers into automatic monthly deduction of fee from their banks. "The information was presented in a confusing manner and inadequately disclosed that the charges would reoccur until the consumer canceled," the office said.
The policy section of the CPC website said that customers will get their money back if they applied for a refund within 30 days of the purchase of prayer, and also assured immediate cancellation of services if requested.
However, one consumer disclosed that when he wanted a refund, his request was ignored, even though his monthly subscription was canceled.
"I feel like the web site was deceptive in automatically enrolling me into a monthly contract without stating that up front. So I don't believe it is a legit prayer site," the consumer was quoted as saying by Christian Post . "If this was a real prayer center they would not have a problem with a refund just to show their sincerity of their mission. But I believe this guy's mission is to rip people off."
The website promised prayer from thousands of contacts on their prayer network, in return for charges starting at $9.
"Local churches and small group prayer lists have been a wonderful way to share the blessings of prayer, but these methods are limited in their ability to rally the true power of thousands of voices all praying in agreement. The Internet has enabled us to build a massive congregation to lift your prayer requests to a whole new level," the CPC used to claim on its website.
The 'Christian Prayer Center Scam' Facebook page started in 2012 warns people to not go to CPC website, saying: "The owner of the website is not a Christian, they are not ministers, they ask for your credit card and will continue to charge it and NO ONE WILL PRAY FOR YOU. They are a scam website that says 'Thousands Will Pray for You'--NOT TRUE. Dont give anyone your credit card number and dont pay for prayer!"
Rogovy ran two other businesses, including an online church by the name of Christian National Church, presided over by a non-existent 'Pastor Parker Robinson,' who asked $139 for an ordination certificate if anyone believed in One True God, accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and asked forgiveness for their sins.
The third business, Consumer Complaint Agency, claimed that they will advocate customer complaints on their behalf against businesses for $25, but they only forwarded their complaints to companies.
