Swami who promised lottery riches
Posted by Paul Collins at 00:11, 12 Jan 2008Swami who promised lottery riches
Like magic, an accused scammer has vanished after pulling multimillion-dollar lottery-win predictions out of eggs in exchange for cash, members of the local Hindu community say.
And as Peel Regional Police try to find the so-called Swami Swindler, people who paid between $10,000 and $160,000 to get luck and prayers for big lottery pay-offs are staring at empty bank accounts or scrambling to cover loans they took out,according to Paramjit Bhullar, who lost $105,000.
"Totally, my brain was washed," said a Mississauga taxi driver, who did not want to be identified. "My wife was very happy. Now, I am hiding this," working extra to pay off loans.
"He told me he has 8,000 clients," the cabbie said of Mohammad Roshan Zameer, whom he visited at an Eglinton Ave.-Mavis Rd. home after being offered healings and help for family issues on the 530 AM Punjabi Lehran radio show.
Others who heard the same smooth promises were sworn to secrecy at the house after willingly giving money to Roshan bhai -- "Brother Roshan" in Hindi -- when guidance and healing talk switched to predictions of big Lotto 6/49 winnings.
Several, including Bhullar, said Zameer opened boiled eggs and showed slips of paper with their names on them or lottery tickets predicting they'd win.
"He said, 'Oh, you are lucky,'" said the cabbie, adding his cousin paid $66,000 for a similar promise.
"He told me one guy was very lucky and won $11 million," as Zameer had predicted.
"I thought he was a really helpful guy," the taxi driver said. "He said only one time I would win, then I could help the hospitals and children."
Courier Avtar Singh, who said he re-mortgaged his home to cover $40,000 borrowed in exchange for a promised $20 million, earns only $500 to $600 a week.
Singh said he visited the house "several times."
"He was usually alone," he said of the mystic. "It was a private meeting -- people were waiting, but he told us not to talk to any others."
But when the big days dawned after Christmas and bonanzas failed to materialize, victims found the house vacant and other people with similar tales.
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Comments
1 May 2004
4 weeks 2 hours
to believe how stupid, or desperate people have to be to get caught up in these scams.
Don't talk to each other? Hello?
This is were the stupid line forms.
14 January 2006
10 weeks 2 days
Swami Swindler Update
WOODBRIDGE -- Local Hindus claiming they gave bales of cash to a swami offering good luck and lottery wins say they were lured by ancient religious beliefs, superstitions and fears of black magic.
But after paying between $2,000 to $160,000 to burn prayer packets and notes written in Irdu, they now say the missing holy man was just a clever huckster who used tricks, sleight-of-hand and warnings of bad luck if they disobeyed.
As Peel Regional Police try to find Mohammad "Brother Roshan" Zameer, central fraud bureau Det. Mike McDougall yesterday said he has a list of more than a dozen people who allege big losses.
When they did not win their predicted mega-million Lotto 6/49 bonanzas, they discovered they were not alone after meeting in front of the Mississauga home Zameer vacated after Christmas.
"If this guy has some sort of power, we didn't want to get any curses," a law student, who didn't want to be identified, said.
Like others who heard 530 AM Punjabi Lehran radio shows last year, on which Zameer offered fee-less prayers and guidance, the student, his engineer dad and mom, started visiting.
They said they watched in awe as their names were enlarged on paper heated on a hot plate, then as apparent lottery tickets emerged from boiled eggs. Each time, "Brother Roshan" softly and with many smiles intoned prayers, the son said.
"I knew magic was done on television with trick cameras, but I saw it with my own eyes," he said at the home of local businessman Paramjit Bhullar, who said he lost $105,000.
After several visits, they paid Zameer $40,000.
An almost identical story was related by a car mechanic who owns his own business. "I lost $160,000," the married father whispered sheepishly, admitting with annual earnings of $40,000 to $50,000, "my future is lost."
Calls to Zameer's associates and the radio program host identified by Bhullar were not returned.
http://www.etreasurespublishing.com/Paul...
22 November 2004
13 hours 37 min
Indeed, it sounded to good to be true.
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If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.
(Bill Clinton, and perhaps others)