International Law

Affinity Fraud: Pastors Must Stop Bringing Wolves

Cover via Amazon

Richard O. Jones, writing at Black Voices News, has some good advice about affinity fraud.

"Affinity fraud includes investment frauds that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups.

It is called affinity fraud because the definition of affinity is: a similarity or likeness that connects persons or things. 

The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are - or pretend to be - members of the group.

They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme, by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile.

Many times, those leaders become unwitting victims of the fraudster's ruse."

Richard correctly argues that the religious leaders are unwittingly introducing fraud criminals to their flocks.

I have made this point many times: religious networks need to band together to pass on news about criminal cons.  They have to get over their embarrassment, suffer and move on to alert each other about the wolf that is passing through their congregations.

Without such a general network, con criminals find it easy to target the sheep.

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).