Religious Scam Fighters and Resources

It is believed that religious people are too easy for con artists to prey on. In the recent years, there are many cases reported by people who have been on the receiving end of bogus request for help. The reason behind is their trusting nature in other members belonging to the same religious community. Con artists use various religious slogans asking for some kind of favor to God by raising funds for a worthy cause which in reality has nothing to do with that cause and the money realized is used for their comfort and personal lifestyle. It is also considered a form of investment scam where the money is used to reinvest in an opportunity promising quick returns.
Other half of the page covers handful of videos and PDFs showing various methods used by scammers to deceive their victims seamlessly and few reported cases. A list of various Government and Education sites has been given that fight back against such scams.

1. Scambusters
Church scams can happen when members of a congregation, a church, temple or mosque, or even a whole religious organization, are fooled into parting with their money either for a supposedly profitable investment or simply to support an individual who claims to has fallen on hard times.

2. Christiancentury
We've had cases where people quote Scripture, that the Lord wants you to make money. And when the house of cards comes crashing down, the victims sometimes lose more than just their money -- sometimes they lose their faith, and it's extremely sad.

3. Freeman Institute
List of some scam artists using God and Religion for their own purposes.

4. Defraud Investors
Scammers Use Religion to Defraud Investors.

5. Huffington Post
Other major frauds exposed by federal investigators in recent years have targeted Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, black churches and other denominations, from $190 million lost in a three-year scam promoted by a Christian radio host in Minnesota to an estimated $1.4 billion conned from thousands of Utah Mormons.

6. Crimes-of-Persuasion
Affinity fraud is when one person gains the trust of others because they share the same religion, race, ethnicity, career or other social characteristic and then deceives them in some kind of financial transaction.

7. God to Con Christians
State securities regulators charge that in the past 3 years, scams in 27 states used the name of God to rip off $1.9 billion. By comparison, for the 5 years ended in 1989, they say $450 million was lost to religious-based scams.

8. Better Business Bureau
In a new Facebook scam, con artists are impersonating popular church pastors. Once they gain a following, scammers use their influence to drum up donations for non-existent causes.

9. Consumerfraud Reporting
Scammers know no bounds when it comes to scamming people out of their money. And yes, they will use your faith to scam you. Just because someone says they are pious does not mean they are!

10. Scamhunter
Online scams that take advantage of people's religious beliefs.

11. Michiganradio
Man accused of using fake religious organization to run foreclosure rescue scam

12. Nasaa
Investment frauds that take advantage of victims' religious or spiritual beliefs are rising dramatically, state securities regulators warned Tuesday, with losses in three large cases – Greater Ministries International Church, the Baptist Foundation of Arizona and the IRM Corporation – approaching $1.5 billion.

13. AATTP
In a magnificent display of irony, and just two days after Pat Robertson asked bankrupt families to give him "just $20 a month," the televangelist is now warning his minions to be on the lookout for "scamsters in religious garb quoting the Bible."

14. Theblaze
Con artists have apparently taken to a new tactic: Using religious figures to trick unsuspecting Facebook users into donating money to nonsense ploys. The BBB charges that these people pretend to be pastors, and then they scam people out of their resources for "non-existent causes.

15. Bizjournals
They are among potentially thousands of people across Arizona who have fallen victim to affinity fraud, in which the perpetrators target people of specific religious faiths or nationalities.

16. Washingtontimes
A Detroit man accused of using religion to gain the confidence of people with mortgage problems and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars has been sentenced to 30 to 99 years in prison.

17. Kansas
Search for the Rev. Adam Hamilton on Facebook and you'll likely get two seemingly identical pages to choose from.

18. Fightfraud America
It is a fact of human nature that most people are quickest to trust "one of their own." In too many cases, someone sitting in a church pew implicitly trusts the person sitting right next to him. After all, if they are side by side in prayer, why worry about doing business?

19. Wikipedia
A term used for civil or criminal fraud carried out in the name of a religion or within a religion, e.g. false claims to being Kosher or tax fraud.

20. Save and Invest
Fraudsters Exploit Faith and Trust to Steal $580 Million

21. Times of India
Maximum investors, considering name of the schemes auspicious got carried away emotionally and lost lakhs of rupees, found police probe.

22. Worldnomads
Unfortunately there are simply too many scams in India to be prepared for all of them, but a good rule of thumb is that if something feels wrong, or too good to be true, then it probably is.

23. Mailscamalert
This category includes people who claim to have some kind of power because of their religious training or beliefs.

24. The Guardian
A Briton wanted by the FBI over allegations he set up a £16m religious-themed investment scam in the US is to be extradited.

25. The BBC News
The case came after complaints from two women, one of whom said she was manipulated into paying more than 20,000 euros (£18,100) in the 1990s.

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