Peter Popoff

Peter Popoff was born July 2, 1946, in West Berlin to a Bulgarian evangelical pastor father and a German mother. The family emigrated to the United States in 1950. Popoff attended Chaffey College and the University of California, Santa Barbara, graduating in 1970. He had been appearing as a preacher since age 14, billed in advertisements as 'The Miracle Boy Evangelist.' He married Elizabeth Popoff in 1971 and launched a television ministry that by the early 1980s was nationally broadcast, bringing in an estimated $4 million per year.

His ministry rested on a theatrical performance in which he appeared to receive supernatural knowledge of individual audience members' names, home addresses, and medical conditions, which he attributed to divine revelation. The mechanism was mundane: audience members submitted prayer request cards at the door; Elizabeth Popoff read these backstage through a radio transmitter; Peter received the information through a small wireless earpiece. James Randi's team intercepted these transmissions at a 1986 crusade. Randi played the recordings — including Elizabeth saying 'Peter, I'm talking to you. Can you hear me? If you can't, you're in trouble' — on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in May 1986. Popoff's ministry collapsed and he declared personal bankruptcy in 1987.

Rather than retire, Popoff reinvented himself in the late 1990s, pivoting to late-night infomercials targeting low-income and elderly viewers with a product called Miracle Spring Water. Viewers who wrote in received a small bag of water and a letter urging them to send $27 as 'seed money' to unlock miraculous financial and physical blessings. Investigation by NBC's Dateline and the non-profit organization Right Response Ministry documented millions of dollars flowing from economically vulnerable households to Popoff's operations.

Popoff received the James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award for fraud in 2011. His ministry continues to operate as of 2024, buying late-night cable television time and mailing solicitation packages to a list reported to include millions of names.

“Receives divine knowledge of strangers' names, addresses, and ailments directly from God”

James Randi's team scanned radio frequencies during Popoff crusades and intercepted transmissions from his wife Elizabeth reading from prayer request cards that audience members had submitted. The audio was played publicly on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in May 1986.

“'Miracle Spring Water' from near Chernobyl heals disease and eliminates debt”

The water is ordinary water sent with solicitation letters. Recipients are encouraged to send $27 or more as 'seed money' to activate the miracle. No evidence of any healing or debt elimination has been documented.

“Faith healing at crusades cures cancer, AIDS, blindness, and deafness”

No independent medical documentation of healings has been produced. People with serious illnesses who rely on faith healing instead of medical treatment can suffer preventable harm and death.