Weekly Devotions - Sowing Seeds of Faith

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“Scams, Con-Artists, Jacob & God?"

Recently I received this email: “I am former Mrs. Abibat Said, a widow to the late Alhaji Mahi Said. I am 72 years old, suffering from a long time bout with cancer. My late husband was very wealthy but he died during the Gulf war as well as my only son. I inherited all his business and wealth. I have now decided to divide part of this wealth by contributing to the development of philanthropism in Africa, America and Asia. I selected your organization to receive $10 Million dollars. Please immediately get in touch with my physician and business manager to file for the transfer. I await your urgent reply.”

“You will receive ten million dollars?” Wow! This seems astonishing until you hear the rest of the story. People responding to the request are told to simply divulge their bank account number and a huge deposit will soon follow. What actually occurs is a huge withdrawal… of every dollar in your account.

This is commonly known as the “Nigerian Email Scam” named after the country where it originated. I have received an average of one or two of these letters a day for the past five years. Authorities estimate victims have lost in the billions. Fortunately I was never one of those sufferers.

Not so fortunately, I became casualty to another internet scam. An order came over the Sowing Seeds Ministry website for 175 copies of my latest book: “Breaking the Peanut Butter Habit” plus other items and there was also a donation to our ministry. The shipping address was a remote area of Africa. I was immediately suspicious because the order was so large and why would anyone in Africa want so many copies of this particular book. “Maybe the charge card information is no good and the whole thing is a stunt,” I thought. Yet the entire order and over $1,000 of shipping charges was approved.

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Still suspicious, I called my local banker and asked his advice: “Do you have the money?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Then ship it and don’t worry,” he said. Soon, I discovered my banker was very wrong.

When you use a charge card in a store and sign a receipt, the credit card company guarantees payment to the merchant even when fraud is involved. But since there is no signature when buying products over the internet there are few guarantees given to the unfortunate merchant.

Several days later, I received a phone call from the fraud division of the credit card company informing me that the order was processed with a stolen credit card and that within days, all the money would be withdrawn from my business account. Our little ministry was successfully scammed out of thousands of dollars and 175 copies of my books were now either sitting in a warehouse or floating around Africa.

When describing the email scam, I felt smart and very astute but succumbing to the lures of the second scam made me feel vulnerable, embarrassed, ashamed and angry. “How could I be so stupid and not be more suspicious? Why would someone want to harm our ministry in such a way?”

Recently, while preparing for a sermon series on Godly Leaders of the Old Testament, I revisited the story of Jacob and his twin brother Esau in Genesis. Jacob was the second twin and he is said to have been holding tightly to Esau’s heel during birth. The name Jacob literally means, “grabber” and also “deceiver.” Jacob is literally a con artist in the Bible and his number one dupe is his brother Esau.

Jacob grabbed and deceived to get everything he wanted out of life. He grabbed his brother’s birthright with what I call, “The World’s Most Expensive Stew.” He stole Esau’s blessing and honor by disguising himself in front of their father. Caught in his deceit, Jacob did what comes natural for any con artist… he ran away. For years he stayed with his Uncle Laban yet another con artist in the family.

After being deceived and scammed, I’m beginning to understand how Jacob’s brother, Esau felt. But after years of living with Laban we find Jacob wants to pack up his family and return home. All his life, Jacob had been running but now the con-artist was coming home to face Esau, his family and God.

Click Here to Read Part 2 of "Scams, Con-Artists, Jacob and God?"

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Last modified May 2, 2005.

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