Wednesday, March 15, 2006

3/15/06 (PMP) The Guarantee?

Sometimes you wonder if these people involved in the paranormal are just plain nuts. I try to find the humor in some of the things that have happened. After the very intense beginning of this series, today’s post may be a needed change for both of us.

Once Project Jason began, psychics started to come out of the woodwork again, often wanting me to put them in touch with our families. There was no chance of that.

When I received the first email from the scammer in today's story, I wondered if there was something legally I could do about it. I thought that since he was from a foreign country, that perhaps he could be sent back for doing this sort of thing. I would think that the University would not want someone like him working for them. Surely they would be unhappy that he was using their email and computers to run a scam. So, I tried to get as much information out of him as I could, pretending to be an emotional wreck, thus gullible. I was hoping that something he would reveal would get him in hot water. I did not want him to find a truly gullible person and waste their money.

I spoke to the FBI about this man. They said they only became involved in larger dollar amounts. The University police said that unless money passed hands, no crime had been committed. The only action they took, (at my request) was to let him know there was a complaint and they also warned him not to use the computers for his business. I did send an email to all of our families, warning them of this scammer.

What follows is the dialog between the scammer and me. My words are in blue. He starts out with a clear guarantee to locate a missing person, but that gets watered down towards the end.




Dear Kelly (and your family).

My name is Diego XXXXXXXX. I am a researcher at the University of XXXXXXX, in XXXXXXXX, KY. I have a wife and a 9 month-old baby girl. I am from Colombia, South America and I came to U.S. under a Fulbright scholarship (I will be glad to verify all of the above mentioned information). You can search my name at the University's web page.

I decided to contact you because after thinking this for along time, I have decided to use the abilities that I and one of my best friends have to find missing people. I will briefly tell you what do we do so you can have an idea:

I have a partner in Colombia (South America) and working together, in more or less a month since the moment we are authorized to proceed by the families, we can help to find missing people (this work is guaranteed). In my country this method has been used to find kidnapped people among other uses. This method also allows to detect if the missing person is alive or death.

I want to be totally honest and transparent with you, we do not do this work for free. I want to use our abilities (mine and my friend's capabilities) as an additional source of income. The money that we expect to obtain from this type of work will be used for helping people in need in our country (and I will be happy to verify this information for you).

I would be more than happy to meet with you and explain you the option that I am offering.

I hope that you can find in my message the transparency and honesty that I want to show you. My life is dedicated to science, but exploiting these extra abilities will help me to get the resurces for helping more people in my country and my community as well as helping families victims of violence.

Please make this message/invitation extensive to your family

Sincerely

Diego XXXXXXXX
University of XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX, KY


Hello Diego,

Thank you for writing to me with your offer of help. That is very kind of you to think of our family, especially at this time of year when families are supposed to be together, and ours is not. I cry myself to sleep nearly every night and wonder where our Jason is, and if he is ok or not.

Maybe you don't know anyone personally with a missing loved one, but it is really horrible. If you really can help people, then I think that is great.

The problem is, we really don't have much money at all. No one else has ever been able to find Jason. I just don't know how you can say that you can find him for sure. Is this like a money back guarantee sort of thing?

Do you have some kind of psychic power like that Sylvia Browne woman? How do you do this? I don't know how we would meet anyway because I cannot afford plane tickets to Kentucky.

Thank you.

Kelly



Thanks for replying to my message.

The work that I can offer is based on a psychic and mental use of energy, but different from what some people are using (and I have met several psychic people here at U.S.), we (my friend and I) can work in coordination with the families to track down what happened to the missing person and to get the clues to find the person's location.

I know the pain you are going through. I did experience soemthing similar when my father died victim of violence and that is something that words will never be able to depict clearly. That is why I am offering these method as an option. Moreover, I used the method to perform part of my experiments during my Ph.D. program and I won an award at the Cancer center here at U of XXXXXXXX in 2002 (I can also provide you with proof of this).

I can really assure you that our method is totally reliable, but I also insist on asking for a reward for this type of work. I found your website and I realized that some of the posted ads include rewards.

What I really think is that by helping to solve one of the cases that are offering a reward you can see how the method work, convinve yourself of the accuracy of the methodology, and connect us with more cases.

If you visited the web page at the university you must have realized that my main interest in life is cancer research, and I hope to keep my energy focused on that area. Nonetheless, I expect to use these abilities to obtain fundings for helping people in my country that I know are in great need right now and I hope to channel most of that money toward them. (as I mentioned I would be happy to meet you and show you that everything that i am telling you is true and that I am being as clear and honest as I possible can).

In summary,

1. This method works based on pure mental energy and involves the creation of an energetic link between you, I, and my friend in Colombia (therefore I must meet with the person(s) that will be involved in the case so that we can create the conection).
2. Because the efficacy of the work is guaranteed, I decided not to do the work for free. Moreover, the money coming from this work will not be used for my own benefit, rather it will help many people in need in my country.
3. If you know of any person in a similar situation like yoursm who could be willing to offer a reward, I would be happy to work with them and I would invite you to follow up on our results so that you to can have an idea of how the cases can be solved. In this way you will not to create false expectations for you and your loved ones.

I hope that you can find some relief and hope on my words. I know that the ALmighty is with you and He is talking through me. I wish you the very best and I hope we can keep in touch

Diego


cHello Kelly!!
I am sorry that it took me so long to get back in touch with you. The end of the year at the lab and christmas shopping.....plus all the snow that fell on this area kept me very busy and stranded at home.
I hope you had a nice christmas and I hope you enjoy the rest of the holidays with your family!

Thanks for your words regarding my father. I appreciatte what you said, he will be always with me and everyday I love him more and more.
I will answer your questions as clearly as I possible can:

You asked:
Just to make sure I understand you, are you saying that the posted reward fund for a missing person is your payment, rather than some separate payment direct from the family that would come before the person is found?

My answer is:
First, The minimum that we will charge for our work (my friend and I will work together) is 25,000 US dollars. The main reason for setting that price is that; as i understand, half of that monery will have to be used for taxes and therefore the real amount that we would en up collecting would be very little if we just take what the reward funds offer (I do not know about your case in particular, but most of the times the posted rewards vary between 1,000 up to 10,000). If the funds are higher we would expect to get the full amount of the money. I am pretty confident that we can finsih our work without failure.

Second, The way that we expect the payment to be done is in two
payments. Half at the beginning and half at the end.We want also to
be sure that the money is put in a fund or something that ensure to us that we will obtain the payment for our work (I tried to do this work before with total generosity and I was left wthout anything and therefore I want to make sure that the money for the payment exists and will be dedicated for this purpose).

Third, There will be extra expenses, mostly for making phone calls and trips and I expect these costs to be aforded by the person(s) interested in solving the cases. I mean, we will have to make a few phonecalls to Colombia, back and forth while solving the case and these phone calls may cost around 150 to 200 dollars (I do not really expect them to be more expensive than that). I would require to go to the area where the missing person used to live, take some pictures, meet with the people interested in solving the case and get as much information as possible from that meeting. I anticipate that at least two trips would have to be made in order to complete the work.

Fourth, We expect that regardless the outcome of our work the payment be made in full. I mean, whether the person is alive or not, we expect the payment to be made in full.

You asked:
Is this method mentioned online anywhere? Have you used it yet on any specific cases?

The closest report that I have seen using similar methodologies was on a CNN report. They interviewed some psychic people that helped solving some cases. Nonetheless, what i saw was that most of them have not fully developed skills and they can not solve most of the cases. The closest "logical" explanation that i have seen so far is a strategyu called remote viewing, a technique used by the army and now shown on the internet. Still, that technique fails in many ways and has not been effective in many cases where it was employed.

I interviewed with a psychic who has been trying to solve a high profile case. She knows that we have the ability to solve this type of cases. I would be happy to ask her for a reference in case it is required.

My most recent example was my own mentor here at the University of XXXXXXXX. While I was doing my Doctorate research I employed this method to solve some scientifc questions. In fact, I won an award in Sept 2002 when I presented some of my preliminary results here at the University. So, my old mentor (I mentioned ot you that I already
graduated) might confirm to you that my words are honest.

If you think of this method in perspective of what i have mentioned so far, it can be used for many applications: to forecast future events, to solve unknown enigmas in science, as well as to track events in the past (like what happened to missing people), and to help finding the missing person.

You asked:
How do you make a connection to your friend if he is in Columbia? Would a family have to come to where you are to do this?

My answer is:
This method is based merely on mental energy, the same energy used for the brain for generating ideas or sending impulses and messages throughout the neuronal networks. Therefore you will not see any "crazy" elemnts on this work, we do not use the Tarot, the ouija, or the magic cristal ball. This work is based on energy, pure and simple energy.

the connection with my friend in Columbia will be established in two
ways: I need to meet with you to establish an energetic link between you (meaning all the people involved in solving the case), I, and the place where the person was last seen. Second, we will call to my friend and then you will talk on the phone so that your energy (sounds are one of the manifestations of energy) to establish a link that will use your energy and mine to begin tracking the missing person and getting the information.

We also need to send to my friend a copy of the pictures that we will take so that the energy captured on these pictures could be used for getting a clearer image of the answers as they start to appear.

This type of work is able to solve cases in ore or less one month since the starting day when we meet, take the pictures, and talk to my friend.

Please let me know if you know of anyone that could be interested on this type of work. I wish you the best and I hope to hear form you soon.

Diego


Nice to hear from you again!!

OK, I will try to answer to your questions:

That's an awful lot for taxes. Who is taxing this service and why would it be taxed?

My answer:
As I understand from a conversation with a friend who is an american citizen, this money does not come from a job, this is similar to winning the lottery, you must pay almost 50% in taxes when you win the lottery because that is an extra source of income. I have not double checked this info. Rather I am believing on what my friend told me (even though I will call this week to double check this info).

I am so confused now, because you say you are "pretty confident" where as before I thought you said you guaranteed results. Did I misunderstand something? You don't mess around when a person is talking about this kind of money, of course.

My answer:
More important for me, I do not mess around whith someone when things regard issues as important as finding loved ones; and yes, I do not mess around when there is this type of money involved. I honestly do not think that our price is a huge price, for example, in Laci Peterson's case the lawyers were charging tens of thousands on both sides.

I ackowledge that nothing si perfect but I guarantee you with 99% confidence that we can find the person that is missing. I could ensure you that we can find the missing person totally confident, but I will leave a margin of error of 1% just in case you feel that still there is a possibility of not finding them (I think that you meant that in your question).

What kind of fund would it be placed in?

My answer:
Any fund that ensures that the money really exists and that it will be used for the purpose it should be used. You can choose it if you would like, I really do not mind any as long as the money is secured for the work that will be done.

If you did it before, then you would have references of other cases where you found people, right? What references of actual cases do you have?

So far the work has been done in Colombia. I could give you the references to works done overthere. I have been in U.S. since 1999 and honestly I never thought of applying this psychic ability to solve this type of issues. Nonetheless, several circumstances made me change my mind.


Maybe you should get one of those special calling plans to save money. I know International calls are expensive. Are these really long calls, then?

My answer:
I use prepaid phonecards for calling long distance within the US and for international calls to Colombia. They are the cheapest way to call. So far I have found that the phonecards from blackstone and masterbell work the best (http://www.blogger.com/www.blackstoneonline.com or http://www.blogger.com/www.masterbell.com).
Unfortunately the connection to cell phones is more expensive but offers better quality. Moreover, I can not tell you how many minutes we will spent on the phone, or how many times we will have to talk on the phone.

It will come as we perform the research. I believe that I will have to spend as much time calling to Colombia as calling you and/or the detectives in charge of the cases and these are also long distance calls.


Don't you think you could get it done in one trip? Do you want to meet with the police as they have all those details logged in a very large book. I can't remember all of those things, and I doubt most people could.

My answer:
Yes, the ideal situation for me would also be to have everything set in a single trip. If that is possible to achieve I would be happy to do so, but it can also depend on the case and how things develop. I have been planning on two trips, but if one is enough I do not need to keep on traveling, plus it would be much more desirable for me so I do not need to take leaves from my laboratory.


What do you do when you find them anyway? You can't make adults go home if they don't want to. Many of these cases are adults.

My answer:
Kelly, I believe certain things that have been written in the Bible, and the best gift we were given is freedom. In the same way as I am offering you this way to help you find missing people, with total honesty and freedom for you to shoose it or reject it; we must offer people freedom to choose their lives. We can not force anyone to do what they do not want to do.

Having said that I must mention that we can try to re-orient some elements of the person's psychology to see if they react and reorder their lives. Nonetheless, people involved in drug abuse, and advanced alcoho-realted states are the most difficult people to treat. We can not force anyone to do what they do not want to.

Kelly, what you should keep in mind also is that many times when someone dissapears with no trace, relatives are also involved. That is even harder to realize, but it happens a lot.

Did they solve any at all using this method? I can't be for sure from what you said. Is there a link to a CNN story online about this?

My answer:
I believe that the program that showed the psychics was "The World with Cavutto" and he presented two or three psychic that have been involved in solving several cases. So, they have been able to solve some cases but I know that very well known psychics have failed and that is beacuse they are not fully developed in their abilities. I will see if I can find this info for you.


That would be good to know who that is. Why don't you help her solve it?

My answer:
I interviewed with her and she does know that we can solve the case. I offered my help and she contacted the family. They have several investigators hired for solving the case and as I mentioned to you, this work that I am offering must be done in total freedom and also with the absolute acceptance from the family, I will not force anyone to accept this alternative. What I believe is that some of the psychics working in the case want to solve the case in their own way and that is OK with me.


Congratulations on the award. Does your mentor still work there? I think people would want to know who that is, too.


My answer:
Thanks a lot for your words (I still have a picture of that day!!).
Yes, my mentor is still a member of the University. I would have to ask him if he does want me to release his name and information for this issues. I think for him it would be a difficult decission to make (I had a really hard time trying to show him that psychic ways are also a way to approach science; but if he agrees to serve as a reference I would be happy to release his information). A scientist aknowledging extra-sensorial alternatives is seen as a crazy scientist!! And my mentor does not want to be seen like that, that I can guarantee you 100%!!! But I will try to convince him!!

If it can do all that, why don't you pick the winning Powerball numbers?
I would if it was me. Why don't we hear more about it in the news?


My answer:
Well, winning the Powerball has several things into consideration, the most important is that when you try to win the lottery you are not only managing your own energetic vibration with numbers but also the vibration and anxiety of every person playing the lottery too, and that is a real challenge. Winning the lottery becomes a long term goal.


What I can tell you is that each person has some vibrational numbers and their energy can be focused for such purposes but it does not mean that it has to happen as soon as they get the energy focused on that direction.


I have seen psychic people that are able to bend spoons, or eastern yogui masters that set paper on fire with their bare hands. My friend and I would not bend a spoon unless we use brute force and the spoon is made of soft material. What I mean is that each person has some abilites more developed than others and that is imprinted in the energy in the same way the color of eyes is determined by the genes that both parents give to their sons and daughters.


That's good because alot of people don't believe in those sorts of things.


My answer:
Tarot, ouija, and many other things are part of many tols developed through human history. I know that there is certain degree of truth in some of these elements and I do not critizice positively or negatively any of those methods, but as I mentioned to you we do not use them.


Kelly, I am happy that you have all of these questions to ask. We could spend many time on the mail talking about this. If you agree I would prefer to talk to you on the phone so I can solve all of your questions and make a list of the thigs that you expect as references.
If you doubt of this work (and I do not really feel bad if you do); I would be hapy to invite you to meet me and visit the place where I work and live.

I truly beieve that I came to this planet to do research, specifically in the field of cancer research, that is my main interest. I am not on the news nor I have tried to use this method before for that same
reason: my life is science and I have not tried to interfere/modify anything that happens around me. Still, after analyzing this issue, I realized that my friend and I could work on this without changing the main goal of our lives.

Finally, If I show up on TV my personal life would change, in fact I would not have private life and I want to be known by my merits in science but still have privacy. Moreover, some cases involve some type of danger so privacy is an important factor.

Kelly, finally I would like to ask you something: are you really interested? do you know of any person really interested in having cases solved?

As I mentioned I would be happy to talk to you on the phone and solve your questions quickly.

I wish you the best and I hope you can talk to me soon.

Best regards
Diego



After this communication, I did not write back. He wrote back after a time, and I told him I had been too busy to take a look at it again. After that, he received his visit from the University police.

Funny thing, I’ve never since then heard of his successful career as a psychic. So much for guarantees. I hope that no one was taken in by this nonsense.

We understand that many people believe that psychics are effective in solving crimes and finding missing people. Please keep in mind that the goal of this series is to help families understand techniques used by persons making these claims and make better decisions about the use of psychics.

Project Jason and its volunteers cannot act as a clearinghouse for persons claiming success in using paranormal means to locate missing persons. We will be unable to respond to emails or other correspondence sent to us from persons making these claims or persons offering information about or referrals to psychics.

We instead invite those persons to present their evidence to the members of the James Randi Education Foundation. They have a forum available for you to discuss your claims. http://forums.randi.org/forumdisplay.php?f=7

Jump to the next story in the series:

http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/2006/03/31606-pmp-personal-journey-from.html

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