I received an inquiry today about a recent appeal made via email SPAM (wouldn't you hate to have been the marketing manager at Hormel Foods when your famous brand was being used for unwanted and irritating email!)This email was regarding the urgent need for some persecuted Christians in a Muslim country. What was interesting is that while the need was likely true, the email requested that funds be sent to a P.O. Box, the return email was from a hotmail account and the phone number had about seventeen numbers in it with about seven dashes.
While this was an obvious scam, it is a good example of how a little bit of the gift of "discernment" goes a long way. Christians, by nature (not their human nature but by the spiritual), are compassionate and caring people and may be an easy mark for a giving scam.
There are a few very simple principles about giving and this appeal is actually a good example of some elements in any appeal to be wary of from the start:
- Give only to ministries that you know, regardless of how urgent the appeal sounds.
- Pay particular attention when the request is coming from a foreign source. We at ECFA have had a number of questions and inquiries regarding the so-called "Nigerian Scam” as well. Also one that a little discernment would go a long way!
- Make use of easy Internet search tools such as http://www.ecfa.org/ that contains a listing of over 2,000 Evangelical churches and nonprofits, proven to be organizations that you can trust, and http://www.guidestar.org/ which has a complete listing of all 501(c)(3) organizations that file 990's. Note that the GuideStar listings do not include church organizations which are exempt from filing annual IRS 990's. One other Internet search engine that I use often is http://www.snopes.com/ which is great to check out rumors that are spread around the Internet. On it you can check out if “Proctor & Gamble directs their profits to the Church of Satan – FALSE”, “ACLU seeking to have cross-shaped headstones removed from federal cemeteries - FALSE” or “Lightning struck a church after the preacher identified thunder as the voice of God – TRUE”
- Finally, when appeals include the use of free email services such as Hotmail and Yahoo, have no Internet website and use P.O. Boxes as a place to send contributions, immediately throw away the appeal.
A little discernment goes a long way with most of these email scams. With practice, you'll find the delete button on your email easy to hit with many fingers.
