Current Events
Issues with Daoism
The pseudo-Daoist scammers have recently became viral again. These scammers, who either have completely misinterpreted Daoism or are pretending to be Daoists, approach pedestrians asking “Are you interested Daoism?” Actually, those people are easily found at populated places like Gang-nam subway station. However, they are not real daoists.
On April 15th, one student who was preparing for job interviews was asked “Do you know about the Daoism?” from a woman and a man. It took eleven months for him to come back home and when he came back he were taken almost 100 million won away from the “Daoist” religious group.
According to the officer, the people, who claim to be Daoists, act in a group of two as a team. They first seek a target person who seems to have weak-mind and ask personal questions such as “Are there anyone in your family with illness?” and “Isn’t your grandmother sick?” to catch his/her interest. They suggest that he or she need to pray to ancestors and kindly invite to their temple. They recommend staying at their temple and praying for well-being of his/her family. At first glance, they look like a normal religious group of Daoism. However, once the target seems to be assimilates with the Daoism, they start asking for money with a comment that the money will bring in greater
happiness to the family.
For people who do not have jobs like the student, they ask the members to lie to their parents or directly asked for the money. Moreover, they make the members to get loans and took the money. The student was taken the money for 19 times and the total of 75 million won. Once the student tried to secede from the group, they threat with words such as “If you betray us, we will burn down your house,” and beat him up in front of other members. The student could not stand the group and called for the help to the police. The religious group were charged for physical threats.
On April 15th, one student who was preparing for job interviews was asked “Do you know about the Daoism?” from a woman and a man. It took eleven months for him to come back home and when he came back he were taken almost 100 million won away from the “Daoist” religious group.
According to the officer, the people, who claim to be Daoists, act in a group of two as a team. They first seek a target person who seems to have weak-mind and ask personal questions such as “Are there anyone in your family with illness?” and “Isn’t your grandmother sick?” to catch his/her interest. They suggest that he or she need to pray to ancestors and kindly invite to their temple. They recommend staying at their temple and praying for well-being of his/her family. At first glance, they look like a normal religious group of Daoism. However, once the target seems to be assimilates with the Daoism, they start asking for money with a comment that the money will bring in greater
happiness to the family.
For people who do not have jobs like the student, they ask the members to lie to their parents or directly asked for the money. Moreover, they make the members to get loans and took the money. The student was taken the money for 19 times and the total of 75 million won. Once the student tried to secede from the group, they threat with words such as “If you betray us, we will burn down your house,” and beat him up in front of other members. The student could not stand the group and called for the help to the police. The religious group were charged for physical threats.