"A couple of years ago," writes Christine in North Carolina, "our church was contacted by an "Elder Israel Osawe" of Nigeria who asked if we could donate a couple dozen giant print
KJV Bibles (new or used) for use by older members of his church who couldn’t
afford to buy Bibles.
"He said they were actually searching in the trash dumpsters for these
Bibles and, of course, that would strike a sympathetic nerve with
churchgoers. It was my job to gather the Bibles. I maintained communication
with this man by e-mail and he sent all kinds of e-mails about how they were
praying for us, and how God had specifically revealed to them that our
church would help them. What raised my suspicion was when, to my strong
objection, they made me the international president of their ministry
without even meeting me, and began begging me for money for canoes,
bicycles, and a laptop computer.
"So I began some investigation on my own and actually found Israel
Osawe's name on a scammer's web site. Thank God we found out this
information before sending the Bibles or anything else for that matter.
Until this happened, I didn’t know there was a black market for KJV Bibles
in Nigeria. After arriving in Nigeria, the Bibles we almost sent would have
been sold on the black market and the money would have been pocketed by the
scammers."
Christine’s research revealed that this is a subgenre of the scam that
uses fraudulent credit card information to order Bibles from Christian
bookstores. And it’s a scam that continues today. "Even though there is not
a great monetary loss in the above scam, the spiritual loss can be great for
those compassionate individuals who are sending bibles to those who they
feel need them," adds Christine.
After receiving Christine's report, I Googled Osawe’s name and came up with the
following links. The third one was particularly interesting:
NigerianBiblesScammers.homestead.com
VibrationData.com
- Visit this page to get a detailed account of how Edomwande Austine (or
Austine Edomwande, as he often reverses it), posing as Israel Osawe, conned
one Christian man to send not only a couple of batches of Bibles, but money
for airfare to come to America. By reading the communications this
particular man received, you can see how these con artists cleverly play on
people’s emotions over a long period of time. After they have built a level
of trust, they begin to ask for more and more things while setting them up
for the "kill" – the request for big bucks.
VibrationData.com/scam - On this Web page, you’ll find a chart of various scams using the Christian
faith ("crimes of persuasion") with a summary of the e-mail scam and the
country of origin.
Nigerian con artists are constantly preying on Christians, Christian book
stores, and small businesses on the Web. Unfortunately, many tender souls
fall victim to their schemes, often losing thousands of dollars in the
process. Educate yourself to what’s going on here by reading these articles
on my personal domain:
Nigerian Scams
on the Rise
More Reports from Readers Who Have Been Targeted by Nigerian Con Artists
Ship-to Names & Addresses Being Used by Nigerian Scammers
________
© 2007 by Barbara Brabec. Barbara is the author of several
home-business books.
Her personal domain
includes information on her books and a wide
variety of articles on business, writing, publishing,
computers, crafts, and personal interests.
