Peter Popoff’s "Miracle Spring Water" scam costs religious TV network £150,000
Ofcom, the UK's version of the FCC, penalized The Word Network for spreading dangerous medical lies
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The Word Network, which bills itself as “the largest African-American religious network in the world,” has been fined £150,000 by Ofcom (the UK version of the FCC) for airing two shows from scamvangelist Peter Popoff… who deliberately and obviously lied on the show.
If you’re not familiar with Popoff, he’s one of those grifters who’s been around for decades and become synonymous with sketchy evangelism. James Randi famously debunked him a long while ago, yet Popoff never really stopped coaxing gullible people out of their money using the weapon of Christianity.
Hell, here’s video of Popoff offering “miracle water” that will supposedly eliminate your debt… but only if you send him some “seed money” in return.
In other cases, skeptics documented the letters he sent them—unlike the famous John Oliver segment about televangelists, they never even sent Popoff money. A former employee also admitted the “miracle water” Popoff sold was just bought from Costco.
All of this made his family very wealthy. A 2017 article about Popoff in GQ noted that he was making over $9 million a year in 2003 and over $35 million a few years later. You can make good money when you don’t give a damn who you’re screwing over in the process.
But that doesn’t mean the religious cloak he wears shields everyone from the consequences of his lies.
In May of 2023, The Word Network aired two episodes of Popoff’s show that included the claim that buying his “Miracle Spring Water” could improve someone’s health or finances. This wasn’t some vague claim that accepting Jesus would make your life better, which is what many pastors say, but a very specific claim that told a medical lie.
While the episodes are not available online, the gist of his pitch can be seen in this Instagram video Popoff posted in February:
Ofcom said in December that the episodes displayed a QR code and phone number to guide users to the sham products, and Popoff promoted them heavily. For example, this is what he said on one of the episodes:
“I want you to know when you anoint your hands with the Miracle Spring Water, I want you to anoint both sides of your hands. You're going to see that everything that you touch is going to prosper, grow and be blessed. Blessed in such a way that you will be awed, that you'll be shocked, that you will be amazed. God will bless the works of your hands. Bless your business. Bless whatever you touch. And Liz, we're just going to see miracle after miracle after miracle”.
***
“Sickness is going to disappear. Supernatural miracle money is going to come to you from unexpected sources. Get ready”.
He told similar lies on the next one:
“I told you to anoint both sides of your hands with the Miracle Spring Water. Everything you touch is going to be healed, blessed, yes the blessing of God is going to rest upon your hands. And God is going to move. I believe the last few months of this year are going to be so amazing. The people of God are going to be astonished to see how literally the windows of heaven are open and miracles take place in their lives and their situations and their families”.
In addition to Popoff’s pitches, there were testimonials from people who claimed they were helped by the Miracle Spring Water. One said he used the water and soon came into $64,000. Another said his daughter had problems with her intestine, and doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but the water healed her. The water was also responsible for curing a man of his drug and alcohol addictions, canceling someone’s student loan debt, and getting rid of someone’s diabetes.
And then there was this exchange with a woman who said her grandmother had lung cancer:
Liz Popoff: (to the congregation) “And her grandmother was very sick. What was that?”
Woman 3: “Yeah she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in January”.
Peter Popoff: “Stage four lung cancer?”
Woman 3: “Yeah”.
Liz Popoff: “And she was wasting…”.
Woman 3: “The worst kind of lung cancer”.
Liz Popoff: “And she was wasting away”.
Woman 3: “Yeah she only weighed about 100 pounds after radiation and so I started writing to you, we were writing since June and all type of things have happened but this is the most important. Now, she’s at 126. Before she was bed-ridden. She couldn’t operate her limbs, she couldn’t move she couldn’t do nothing for herself. Now she’s home, she like a 126 pounds. She’s dancing, she’s running up and down. She’s playing bingo again”.
Grandma went from lung cancer to “running up and down” after interaction with Popoff’s ministry.
Broadcasting rules in the UK make clear that the public must be protected from harmful and/or offensive material. They also said religious programs “must not improperly exploit any susceptibilities of the audience.” Obviously, both of those rules are subjective. (Isn’t Joel Osteen manipulating his audience when he preaches the Prosperity Gospel?) But what Popoff did wasn’t in some grey area. It clearly crossed the line.
The Word Network disagreed at first. They argued that it was “abusive” for Ofcom to “all of a sudden raise an issue” when Popoff had essentially been grifting for decades. They also acted like they were the victims of a double standard since other networks aired nudity and pornography without Ofcom punishing them for it.
Ofcom took all that into consideration, they said, but they ultimately decided Popoff went too far.
In this case, the illnesses discussed in the programme, namely lung cancer and diabetes, are serious health conditions. Audience members may be considered vulnerable when they are suffering from serious health issues or experiencing financial difficulties, and the severity of the situation may increase this vulnerability…
In Ofcom’s view, viewers were likely to have understood from the testimonies broadcast in the programme that serious medical and financial problems could be resolved by direct contact with Peter Popoff’s ministry or by using the “Miracle Spring Water” as directed in the programmes. Furthermore, the testimonials were provided in the context of a religious programme and presented by Peter and Elizabeth Popoff, religious preachers who were likely to be perceived by the audience as having authority.
…
Taking into account the above factors, Ofcom did not consider that the Licensee had provided adequate protection for viewers from the potentially harmful content in this programme.
There’s more in the final report, but it’s not substantially different from the above.
And now, nearly 15 months after publishing that report, Ofcom has punished the network that aired the bullshit, in part because they didn’t include a disclaimer that viewers shouldn’t take Popoff seriously:
While having regard to the broadcaster’s and audience’s rights to freedom of expression and religion, we considered the claims that contacting the ministry, or using its “Miracle Spring Water”, were effective ways to improve serious medical illnesses or financial difficulties, went beyond proclamations of faith and religious teachings and practice. We considered these claims improperly exploited the susceptibilities of viewers and had the potential to cause harm without the Licensee providing adequate protection (e.g. by not including information on the importance of seeking advice from qualified professionals).
In addition to the £150,000 penalty, The Word Network has been told they cannot air those episodes again, and they must also “broadcast a statement of [Ofcom’s] findings in this case” on a date in the future.
The full report notes that The Word Network has since “recognised and respected” Ofcom’s concerns and that they argued their audience “understands that the ‘Miracle Spring Water’ is not a treatment or cure (and should not be consumed) but is intended to be used symbolically as a tool to assist in the expression of faith through prayer.” (There’s no reason whatsoever to believe that.)
More importantly, though, they are not challenging the punishments. Furthermore, they’ve terminated the contract with Peter Popoff Ministries. Episodes of his show stopped airing on the network as of last October.
It’s the right move and one that will prevent more gullible, likely elderly Christians from being exploited by a TV preacher who promises to fix their problems if they just hand over a credit card number.
It doesn’t mean Popoff won’t rip off other people. But because the UK government cares more about ethics than this Christian preacher, Popoff will have fewer victims falling for his scam.
If you send money to these grifters, I have zero sympathy for your stupidity..
80 year old guy with shoe polish in his hair and a cheap suit. What's not to trust?