Recently a congregational pastor I know received a poorly written letter (in all caps with poor spelling and even worse grammar) from a company called "DIVERSIFIED FUNDING INTERNATIONAL" which claimed "billions of dollars" in New Church Start funds which could be accessed by new churches for growth and included a Florida phone number and address while claiming to have a local rep in the State where the church is located. Of course, he realized that this was bogus and pitched it (after showing it to a few of us just so we could see how bad it was :D ) but I wonder how many small churches fall for this. The pastor was seminary trained and had worked, prior to ministry, in the mental health field and the church leadership has legal backgrounds so no one would fall for this at his congregatiion.

Legit businesses will not make such claims and will produce more professional documentation with solid references about their services and conditions plus no outlandish promises.

I caught another great source about business scams on a Christian station from Saint Louis, Missouri ([www.thejourneyradio.org]) during their morning program, which regularly runs scam alerts and consumer reports from various news agencies.

washed by the blood of Jesus,
Jack Wilson.