An imposter, who stole the identity of Life Church's senior pastor Craig Groeschel, has been ousted after posting several messages on Facebook requesting money for an African orphanage.
The fake 'pastor' was busted after a woman realised she was not talking to the real Craig Groeschel after several encounters, Kfor reported.
Beth Gentry recalled how he met the pastor impostor when she thought of searching the real one on Facebook.
"They send you people they suggest be friends, and Craig Groeschel was on there," she said. " And I thought, wow, and I was surprised because I figured his friends would be maxed out being the person that he is, so I went ahead and sent a friend request to him."
After sending her a message of prayer request, the fake pastor began asking for money. He told Gentry that his PR people would contact her again if she gives him her phone number, then he said her salvation depends on the amount of money she gives to him. This is where Gentry began to doubt the pastor's real identity.
"He sent this really beautiful prayer and some scriptures, and I was like thank you, and then he was like I had this revelation. Can you send me several hundred dollars to an orphanage in Africa?" she said. "I said, 'well I think it's a scam, and he's like well you're not worthy of being called a Christian, and me and my family will pray for you and we'll be preaching about you from the pulpit on Sunday.'"
LifeChurch released a statement on NewsChannel4:
"Though neither Craig Groeschel or LifeChurch.tv have had any of our social media accounts hacked, people unfortunately continue to create fake accounts impersonating Craig and other pastors. We work with Facebook to remove the fake accounts, and they have designated Craig's official account as verified. Under no circumstances would Craig or any LifeChurch.tv pastor ask for donations via private Facebook messages. We caution people to never respond to a private Facebook solicitation that appears to come from Craig, and to instead report it to Facebook."
Social media becomes an easy method for scam artists to get victims. Social media expert Patrick Allmond said, "The challenge with social media is that anybody in the world can be anybody they want to."
"Both Facebook and Twitter now have validated pages and there's usually some kind of little blue flag on the Twitter account or FB page that says Facebook or Twitter has contacted that organization and verified that is really the true one," he added.
Amy is a Press Services International Columnist from Adelaide. She has a BA in Creative Writing and Screen & Media, and now works as a freelance photographer, videographer and writer. She was runner-up in the 2018 Basil Sellars Award. Her previous articles can be viewed here: http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/amy-manners.html