Warning of scam that international speakers need to be aware of

If you receive an email from a reverend with a Gmail account, you can guarantee you’ve been hit by a scam.

Features of a scam are:

  • Large church who are running a large conference as they want to do something different.
  • Have substantial sponsorship so fees are not a problem.
  • They are promising about 600 people in attendance, yet there is no reference to the conference on the church website.
  • Church and leader exists and have a website, but the email is with a Gmail account.
  • American spelling is used despite being in the UK.
  • There will be a clause that says the following “All travel arrangements such as Flight fare, Speaking fee deposit as well as Hotel accommodation will be taken care of by us as soon as you honor this invitation. The events committee will send you all binding documents including a Letter of Invitation and Contract Agreement as well.”
  • Scammer will eventually request bank details for a payment of flights (I suspect, as you do, they just want your bank details) and they will extract attendance fees from attendees who turn up to an event that will never happen.

See below for trail.

First Point of Contact

From: Revd ______ ______ <revd______@gmail.com>
To: Speaker’s Email
Subject: Booking you for a speaking engagement!!!

 

Blessings to you, I am Revd _____ _____, presiding Reverend of the _________ Church, ___address___. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in ___address____ at the Church conference coming up on the ___dates____. The conference is tagged: ‘Big things: How to start small’.
Please we would like you to convey to us your availability for one of the dates as it can fit in your schedule.
Also, please we would as well appreciate if you get back in-touch with us in ample time so we can start corresponding the details.
Thank you and expecting to hear from you soon.

Remain Blessed.


Revd ____ _____
__valid phone number supplied___

__valid address is supplied___

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9

 

Second response

From: Revd ______ ______ <revd______@gmail.com>
To: Speaker’s Email
Subject: Re: Thank you for your interest in my work.

 

Hello to You May the Lord Almighty Be With you and your Family Everyday of your Lives.,

Thank you very much for your profound interest in this upcoming conference, I have a few more details to share with you so you can have more insight on the conference and what the church stands for as a whole.

 

Yes I know you are in ___country of speaker___ and i want you to speak

 

(Inaugurated in 1958, the annual Lecture is given in ___church name___ Church on some aspect of the life and work of Bede or of Anglo-Saxon history or culture. The lecture is published in the year following delivery and copies can be obtained in ___church name___ Church or from the lecture secretary) This is an age-long history of our church.
It is due to this age-long ritual of giving lectures that we have decided to keep lectures going though the type of lectures has evolved over the years we are proud to say we are keeping the hope alive! It is due to this that we are hosting the conference come ___dates of conferences___.,with about 600 people in attendance and we are pleased to notify you that you have been chosen by our Event Organizing Committee to speak at this event on recommendation of a staff of one of our sponsors, the YMF outreach and after checking your credentials and after reading blogs about you, we received the Lords direction to invite you to speak in this event and we also believe you are as well more than capable to deliver in this occasion, We have decided among the Event Organizing Committee to invite you to this program.

Since I was inaugurated as the Presiding Reverend of this esteemed church, God has being helping us to keep hope and monuments alive and we have also being able to change the face of Christianity, and the church having a whole lot of history attached to it, for one, the site of the oldest stained glass and home to the then Venerable Bede (the scientist) and one of the oldest churches in this part, we also have about the oldest organ in England as well as the Saxon crypt and we also have an history with the river Don.

Sending out the invitation to you is by virtue of Gods bearing plus human recommendation, We need you to use your wealth of experience to sensitize the congregation, We organized this conference and workshop also in the hope of trying to re-organize the Church and further extend our impacts, So we can have people listen and be inspired by speakers like yourself on topics ranging from business growth , surviving in a bad economy, Futuristic speakers , family matters, to healthy living, which is why we chose you to speak at this event as a keynote speaker. Also this conference will as well mark my four year anniversary as the Presiding Reverend of this blessed Church.

The conference theme has been carefully chosen by the Lords’ inspiration due to the backdrop of the present situation in the United Kingdom and this year’s conference has been tagged. ‘How Small Steps Accomplish Big Things’

You can email us the keynote you would like to speak on as we would want you to be convenient with the keynote topic so we decided it would be better you choose it yourself as long as its motivational and inspiring! We will as well need your bio to put up on our website and start to design posters as well as hand bills,

We are inviting you so you can inspire this people, teach them how to triumph over the deflating effects of set-backs & self-doubt, how to break free from whatever is keeping them “small”, and become empowered by their challenges, rather than victimized. And most importantly, how to start great things with small efforts and steadfastness

We would like to know your standard speaking fee for this engagement as we do indeed have a sponsor, So we can negotiate this I believe, Our fees are based on budget and we are not biased with our speakers fee, We budget for every speaker according to what the Event Organizing committee deem fit, But we will also be glad to negotiate.

All travel arrangements such as Flight fare, Speaking fee deposit as well as Hotel accommodation will be taken care of by us as soon as you honor this invitation. The events committee will send you all binding documents including a Letter of Invitation and Contract Agreement as well.
Email us in ample time any questions you may have so we can move ahead.

You are blessed.


Revd ____ _____
__valid phone number supplied___

__valid address is supplied___

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9