In June 2010, I posted a blog about an apparent speaker scam. A friend of Public Words received an invitation to speak at a prestigious university in the UK. There were a number of inconsistencies and oddities with the email and we all guessed that it was a scam. Since then I have received numerous updates from — especially — religious folks being invited to speak at purported religious conferences in the UK. Different venues, different pastors doing the inviting, but it all adds up, again, to scam. Don't send out any information in response! Especially don't send any financial information — bank account numbers and the like.
I get weekly inquiries, sometimes several a week, so this scam is still very active.
Here's the original posting. Click on the link to see the dozens of comments of people who have been approached. And don't be fooled!
The original post from June 2010:
A good friend of ours at Public Words, a successful public speaker, recently received a speaking inquiry from a prestigious university in the United Kingdom. The request came via email, and there were a number of indications that it wasn’t on the level. The email address was a Gmail account, not the university’s email. The sender purported to be a professor at the school, but there was no record of such a professor in the university’s online database. Of course, he might have been newly appointed, but his command of the English language was so bad that our friend was immediately suspicious.
On further investigation, there was no mention of the conference our friend was supposed to speak at on the university’s website. In addition, there was an unusual request to “get a work permit” from the “British embassy” (via another Gmail account).
All signs seemed to point to fraud. And, in addition, the amount of money offered for speaking was unusually large – the final straw.
My question to everyone is: have you run across anything similar? What’s the point – would the scammer have asked for bank information at a later stage if our friend had continued? If you’ve run across speaker scams like this, please let me know.
Very, very nicely done!
Recently, I received the folVictory Outreach Church
Greenforge Way
Springvale Ind Estate
United Kingdom
NP44 3UZ
http://www.victorychurch.co.uk/
Host Pastor:Pastor Richard Taylor
Email:victorychurchinquiry@gmail.com
Tel Phone: + 44 7045750464
Grace and Peace unto you Rev. Dr. Jacqueline McEwan,
We are Pastor Richard Taylor of the Victory Outreach Church London
,United Kingdom.We are writing to invite you to be our guest speaker
at this year Symphony of Praise – Celebration of Victory Conference 2011. After
reading through your profile at http://www.jrmcewan-ministries.com/, The
lord has direct us to email you for this assignment .All travel
arrangements,speaking fee and accommodation will be taken care of as
soon as you honor this invitation.
Venue
Spurgeon Hall (Inside Church Premises)
Greenforge Way
Springvale Ind Estate
United Kingdom
NP44 3UZ
Date : 5th to 7th of December 2011
Topic:The Effect Of Compromising God”s Standard
We will send you all binding documents including a Letter of
Invitation and Contract Agreement as soon as you honor our invitation.
Email any questions you may have.
We await your earliest response.
Remain Blessed
Pastor Richard Taylor
Senior Pastor
Victory Outreach Church
Tel Phone: + 44 7045750464
lowing e-mail invitation:
I did not response after going to the website and located the contact information for the church and found that it differed. The church’s e-mail address was not a gmail and the telephone number was not the same. Thank you for your information.
We just got the same thing in our email. For the end of this month. Praise God we didn’t follow through on that.
I have also received the same email, however the language has been cleaned up a bit to be grammatically correct. It just didn’t register in my spirit so I did some checking. Thank you for your information.
Recently I received an invite from…
Victory Church
Greenforge Way
Springvale Ind.
Estate, United Kingdom
NP44 3UZ
http://www.victorychurch.co.uk/
Host Pastor: Pastor Richard Taylor
Email: victorychurchinquiry@gmail.com
Tel Phone: + 44 704 575 0464
…and my wife and I read your blog, finding how others have been contacted by this scam artist. Needless to say, we did not proceed in contacting, or giving personal data to this scam group. Thank you, and keep up the great work!
– A. A. Jackson,
Sr. Pastor at Realm of Agape Christian Church, Inc., Patchogue, NY
Thank you very much Mary, May God bless you.I here about you from a friend of my who is in the USA he send your website to me to contact you to confirm if you are available on the dates listed. 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.
Since inauguration of this ‘Thornton Heath Evangelical Church’ , We have been involved in new and inspiring developments, organizing this conference is one of them and it will go a long way in achieving our dreams to bring people together to learn and gain from other people’s experience which is one of the major reason why we are arranging this conference this year. Previously before we were reformed, Anglo-Saxon lectures were given and people in the community and environs always gained from this which teaches history and culture. The lecture will be published in this year’s following delivery and copies can be obtained at Surrey,United Kingdom or our other branches or from the lecture secretary).
With a Church uniting as One Big Family, We have been able to draw people closer to the word and also try to teach them values with which they can survive the world. It is due to this age-long ritual that we have decided to organize a conference such as this since the doctrine of the Church 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 Church Lunch come 23rd,then the workshop on 24th & 25th with about 300 people in attendance,
You were been fingered to speak at this event on the recommendation of a staff of one of our sponsors 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 Minister 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.
Apart from the conference coming up April, The church is as well involved in a few other projects. For one, the church has dedicated the new school building to the Most reverend Benjamin Heagreaves,(The Pioneer Minister of this esteemed church)) in view of his many achievements, the website is under-construction.
http://www.benjamin.lancsngfl.ac.uk/
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
The conference theme of the Church Lunch 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. ‘Big things: How to Start small’
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 are expecting your speech to last for about 60mins-70mins and a question & answer session thereafter.
We would like to know your standard speaking fee for this engagement as we do indeed have a sponsor, Our fees are based on budget 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.
—
Elder Peter Dunn
+44 7024015650
Thornton Heath Evangelical Church
Road (A23)
Malvern Road in Thornton Heath,
Croydon,
Surrey, CR7 7LH
United Kingdom
http://www.the-church.org.uk/
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.
On Friday, May 11, 2012, Mary Faktor wrote:
> Dear Elder Dunn
> May I ask where you heard of me? Your conference is only a month away?
>
> Sent from my iPad
> Mary Faktor
> http://Www.MaryFaktor.com
> 330-655-2895 (home/office)
> 216-470-5132 (cell)
> On May 11, 2012, at 8:09 AM, Elder Peter Dunn wrote:
>
> Blessings to you from Thornton Heath Evangelical Church, Mary, I am Elder Peter Dunn, presiding Minister of Thornton Heath Evangelical Church, Surrey, United Kingdom. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in Surrey at the Church conference coming up on the 23rd, 24th & 25th of June 2012. 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.
>
> —
> Elder Peter Dunn
> +44 7024015650
>
> Thornton Heath Evangelical Church
> Road (A23)
> Malvern Road in Thornton Heath,
> Croydon,
> Surrey, CR7 7LH
> United Kingdom
> http://www.the-church.org.uk/
>
> 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
This is the third email offer of this type in the past six months. Ref flags are large speaker fees, agreement to any terms, the need for me to take care of my work permit, short notice and a large conference. I jacked the guy around by playing into his letter, and he kept answering me…they’re smooth. Don’t be fooled.
Just received the invite – wish it was a real opportunity to share God’s love. So, I will jus pray for these folks.
We have been in touch with Pastor Richard Taylor’s church and they confirmed the following was a scam.
Dear Pastor Richard Taylor.
We have just recently received the below invitation via our Web Site http://www.bibleinsong.net
At this stage we only want to establish if it is genuine or not. Could you verify this by replying to this email, and by indicating which particular sermons on our Web Site have moved you to say I have“the real insight and intuitiveness of delivering a heart piercing speech.”I am inclined to assume you have not written this invitation yourself. It may be a staff member or from some other source. If it is not genuine, you may be interested to know that such communications are being sent in your name.
Needless to say, I am honoured to receive it. I have followed a little bit of your career on Youtube and Google and I see you are somewhat of a celebrity. I can also see God has anointed you with courage to take a stand on some critical issues which effect the Church of our Lord Jesus. I would go so far as to say, you have good old fashioned “guts”, and I thank God for that. God bless you for it. There are few ministers around who are prepared to go against the trend of error and unrighteousness. There are one or two areas where we would differ in our understanding of Scripture, but in the urgency to alert people everywhere to submit to the revealed truth of God’s Word we are one, and I love you for that. If this goes any further, I am sure we can speak of this more extensively. I look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers & Blessings in Christ
TonyE
Pastor
LyndochBAPTIST-CHURCH
PO Box 486, Angaston, S.A. 5353
Ph. (08) 8564 3001 Fax. (08) 8564 3005 Mob. 0419 112015
Anthony49@adam.com.au
Please Visit us: http://www.bibleinsong.net
Pastor Richard Taylor sent a message using the contact form at http://www.bibleinsong.net/contact.
Victory Outreach Church
Greenforge Way
Springvale Ind Estate
United Kingdom
NP44 3UZ
http://www.victorychurch.co.uk/
Email:victoryoutreachchurchdesk@gmail.com
Tel Phone: + 44 704 575 0464
Fax :( 44)702 409 2957
REQUEST FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT
Blessed Pastor Tony Edwards,
We are Pastor Richard Taylor from the organization mentioned above, We write you to seek your engagement in our upcoming conference tagged “SYMPHONY OF PRAISE CELEBRATION OF VICTORY CONFERENCE 2012″coming up from 6th-8th of July 2012.
The purpose for these event is to re-brand the mind, body and souls of Christians who have gone astray and are diverting their whole attention into affairs and material things. Also bringing a heart of deep compassion and a strong commitment to the fullness of life that is found only in the redemptive love of Christ.
You are hereby invited for a Speaking engagement as God is going to feed us with his words to edify our souls through his ministers.
We choose you for these engagement because you have the real insight and intuitiveness of delivering a heart piercing speech after reading through your profile on http://www.bibleinsong.net/. We are optimistic and you will indeed be a center of attraction for the audience and win so many souls for the Lord through the inspirational, spiritual, touching and emotional word of yours.
ENTITLEMENTS:
VICTORY OUTREACH CHURCH Event Organizing Committee will be responsible for your Hotel Accommodation, Feeding, and Airfare Ticket Booking. An Honorarium and ground transportation.
EVENT INFORMATION
AUDIENCE:1500
AGE:18-55
REFERENCE:EVENT BROCHURE
SIGNING OF AUTOGRAPH: ALLOWED
SELLING OF CD’S AND BOOKS: ALLOWED.
SPEAKING TOPIC: THE EFFECTS OF COMPROMISING GOD’S STANDARD
Confirm to us via e-mail or direct mobile on these letter head if you will be available for these engagement so we can go ahead with necessary preparations
For more information about event please, do not hesitate to send an e-mail to us ( victoryoutreachchurchdesk@gmail.com).We will be ready to answer all your questions.
We look forward to meeting you soon!
REMAIN BLESSED
Pastor Richard Taylor
Senior Pastor
Victory Outreach Church
+447045750464
Just recently was contacted re Thornton Heath evangelical church, and got exact letter that Mary Got who has posted. I had several red flags, and the request to pay my work permit fee did not make me feel uncomfortable. They refered me to a person who could take care of paper work. I did send passport info but told them to pay for permit. Any danger with passport information being given, no financial has been given. I am a Canadian.
Thank you, thank you for this conversation. We were about to be drawn into this scheme. We received the exact same email from Elder Peter as Mary did except that the big conference was in July, not June. We were getting to the point of having to prepay for the work permit. It just gave us an odd feeling and so I did a search for Thornton Heath Evangelical Church scams and found this thread. You just saved us nearly $1000. Deep gratitude!!!
Is there anything that can be done about this. Can the police be involved somehow?
Hi, Kirsten, and thanks for your comment. So many people have been (nearly) scammed by this approach! It’s important that we keep this stream going in order to warn new potential victims away. The police are aware of the scam, but the problem is that whenever one scammer is shut down another (or the same one under a new name) starts up again. Vigilance and awareness on the part of people like you are the only real safeguards, unfortunately.
I have received this invite also
I thank God for the Holy Spirit working in my life.I did some searching and found out that it was a scam it sound good and the email looked good but was bad.
SYMPHONY OF PRAISE-CELEBRATION OF VICTORY CONFERENCE 2012
I wander do this pastor know that his church info is being used for a scam and if so have he put out a alert to the public.
Pastor Richard Taylor
Victory Outreach Church
Uk
People with public speaking ministries and churches and pastors are being scammed. Our church has been targeted.The scammers use genuine churches without their knowledge and invent fictitious conferences to invite genuine guest speakers too. They phone posing as the pastors of that church and even make genuine hotel bookings. They seem to be using churches and their pastors in the UK and SA and targeting speakers mainly from Canada and the USA and some UK speakers. We are NOT hosting a conference at our church called the Hope Payer Conference in Nov 2013 and we are NOT inviting 1500 congregations to attend although we welcome visitors. Please alert anyone with a public speaking ministry. USA and Canadians too can report scams or identity theft at actionfraud which is a site run by UK police. http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
My husband and I are in TV ministry and received an invitation from our website from Victory Church UK to speak at a conference Word of His Power – well I think that gave it away, as we know the Power of His Word. Thank God for the Holy Spirit as we got a check in our spirit. They went to great lengths to make it authentic. They sent the website for the church along with a phone number. The phone number and e-mail address was different than the one they sent over via e-mail. They were very eager for us to get a work visa before they would book the conference.
Ministers beware! Make direct contact with the pastor or church through their website before sending money for a work visa.
Just received this email. It is a scam. Do not respond
____________________________________________________________________________________
Name: Reverend Dr David Ison
Email Address: reverenddr.davidison@gmail.com
Subject: Booking you for a speaking engagement!!!
Message: Blessings to you Steve, I am Reverend Dr David Ison, Dean of the St Paul’s Church, London, United Kingdom. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in London at the Church conference coming up on the 16th, 17th & 18th of July 2019. 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.
—
Reverend Dr David Ison
St Paul’s Church
184-188 Ferndale Rd
Brixton,London
SW9 8AH
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
I received the exact email Steve Coughran did this morning. Sorry this scam has resurrected itself again.
Peace & Blessings to you, I am Reverend Dr David Ison, Dean of the St Paul’s Church, London, United Kingdom. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in London at the Church conference coming up on the 16th, 17th & 18th of September 2019. 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.
—
Reverend Dr David Ison
St Paul’s Church
184-188 Ferndale Rd
Brixton,London
SW9 8AH
And here’s the scam, right on cue!
Yup, still active lol:
Victory Outreach Church
Harmon Chapel
Nolton Street, Bridgend,
London, United Kingdom
CF31 3AA
WEBSITE: CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND NOT ALL INFORMATION HAS BEEN UPDATED.
Greetings unto you Pastor Nic Brouwer
We are Pastor Phil Lyndon-Jones of Victory Outreach Church, United Kingdom. We are writing to invite you to be our guest speaker at Our upcoming conference tagged “Faith Restoration conference and Banquet” coming up from 15TH to OCTOBER 18TH 2024
The Lord has directed us to email you for this assignment after we got your contact. Air ticket, Hotel accommodation, feeding and speaker fee, will be taken care of as soon as you honor this invitation.
VENUE: Conference Hall (Inside Church Premises)
Harmon Chapel
Nolton Street, Bridgend,
London, United Kingdom
CF31 3AA
Date : 15TH to OCTOBER 18TH 2024
Theme: The Effect of Compromising God’s Standard
We will send you all binding documents including a Letter of Invitation and a speaker Agreement document as soon as you honor our invitation,with your Full names and address,direct telephone number,scan copy of you recent picture for the poster and flyer.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
We serve a God of possibility
Stay Blessed
Pastor Phil Lyndon-Jones
Victory Outreach Church