Money Spinners

Lost in the fog

I can remember when I was in that there were numerous articles and assembly talks about not using the congregation as a means of making money from a captive audience of brothers and sisters.

I was looking at the Etsy website and stumbled upon a JW themed product.

I wondered if there were any more and discovered that there were lots. Mind you maybe it's people who have left who see an opportunity for making money from gullible JWs.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/search?q=jehovah%27s%20witness%20letter%20writing&ref=auto-1

I don't think the people running this have any connection at all to JW's. I went into the Etsy search box, typed in "LDS" and "Jewish" and got very similar items. I think somebody is trolling the internet and slapping whatever they find onto cheap junk, probably creating it on a "Print on demand."

exjwlemming

I posted about this when I was going down the Etsy rabbit hole one night.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5991984314449920/check-out-jw-tchotchkes-on-etsy

neat blue dog

I wouldn't say they're ex JWs, because JWs have been doing this for decades in different forms. The only thing they've been specifically forbidden from monetizing is the JWdotORG logo or any copyrighted imagery.

Simon

Taking advantage of groups that have implicit (often misplaced) trust is called "affinity fraud".

There are a number of examples in JW land of various money making schemes and companies that take advantage of the trust or cheap labor available through congregational contacts.

JWs are ripe for rip-offs ... why? They have already shown they are suckers, and nothing makes you more likely to fall for a scam like being scammed before.

BluesBrother

Firms like Bennet Cards and Ministry Ideas ( spellings?) claim to be run by active Witnesses. They seem to be accepted as legit and are well used by the dubs I know.