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Dodgy Ministry Requests for Donations:
Asa-Ministries, Inc.
Rev. William Asarisi has a church in Florida. Or so he
says. And in the email he says "THIS IS NOT A SCAM!" Well, he says it
isn't, so it must not be a scam, right?
Scammers use your faith to beguile money from you. This "church"
appears to operate out of a PO Box with no physical address published in their
emails (but we used their email address to find their
website, which
states their address is 9239 137th Drive, Live
Oak, Florida 32060.
The
Whois information shows the website is registered to a William Asarisi and
was registered in 2001.
Oddly, the website mentions no Sunday services or physical
activities there - that's a pretty strange church - it looks like a church on
paper only. From all appearances, this church is a one-man show operated out of
a house.
Here is a satellite image of their stated address. It
looks like a residence, rather than a church!
The interesting aspects of this email are:
-
What is a "Nigerian debt"? Once you realize you are
involved in a scam, you stop paying. It is impossible to legally owe
money to a scammer! Duh. Of course, they claim on their website that they
fell victim to the fake check scam and owe the bank the balance. That is
certainly possible, but would surely rank the "church" officials as
irresponsible and idiotic! See this page for their explanation of how they
were scammed:
http://www.asa-ministries.org/save.html
-
Just because they have a website, does not make them a
legitimate organization.
-
Asa-Ministries, Inc.? When was the last time you heard
of a church that included "Inc." (incorporated) in their name? It sounds
more like a business.
Keep
in mind, that just because someone claims in an email (or any other form) to be
a "Reverend" or a good, honest, faithful servant of the Lord" does not mean that they ARE!
Bottom line:
It looks like this is one guy who set himself up as a one-man
church and self-ordained reverend. It's possible he believes in what he's doing.
It's possible he meets the legal definition of a church (not a high bar). We
can't pass judgment on his faith.
But
there are enough warning signs, that we suggest that unless you have direct
information to refute the odds that this is a scam, CFR suggests you send your
donations to large, well-known charitable organizations - or at least a
local church, rather than this "church" in Florida!
-----Original Message-----
From: asaministries@runbox.com [mailto:
asaministries@runbox.com
]
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 12:39 AM
Subject: Ministry Seeks Help After Nigerian Scam
Greetings in the Majestic Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. I pray that this letter finds you walking in the fullness of
God's Anointing. I am not a very good letter writer but I am going
to do the best I can to express myself and the needs we have to you.
My name is Reverend William Asarisi and I am sending this letter
out to a select few whose names were given to my by someone close to
me. I am the Founder & Senior Pastor of Asa-Ministries, Inc. here in
Mayo, Florida. We have been located here for the last 10 years. Over
the last several years we have fallen into some hard times due to a
Nigerian Scam that we unfortunately fell victim to. We have been
doing everything that we could over the last 4 years to bounce back
on our own with our Congregation and local outreach events however
it has not been enough. It has been with great prayer that I have
decided to come to you and ask for your Help & Support. We need to
raise $75,000 or we will be loosing EVERYTHING by August. I know
that this seems like a lot to everyone, one at a time but if each
one would just PRAY ABOUT
SENDING $1.00 or $5.00 the goal could be met very quickly. I am
going to list both our PO Box address as well as our Bank
Information so if you wish to send a Donation directly to the bank
to be applied to the debt you may do that as well. THIS IS NOT A
SCAM!!!!! I WILL ALSO LEAVE A CONTACT PERSON'S NAME AT THE BANK WHO
YOU CAN CALL TO VERIFY THE NIGERIAN SCAM INFORMATION AS WELL.
If you have access to PayPal we have set up a Special Account
just for this Account. You can send your Tax Deductable Donation to
the following email address;
Donations@Asa-Ministries.Org
100% of ALL DONATIONS go to pay off this Nigerian Debt!!!!
Our Mailing Address is:
Asa-Ministries, Inc.
PO BOX 1472
Mayo, FL 32066-1472
Our Bank Information is:
VERY IMPORTANT: For Any Payment sent directly to the bank MAKE SURE
YOU PUT ON YOUR CHECK AS WELL AS ON A NOTE IN THE ENVELOPE TO
BE APPLIED TO LOAN # 416777:
First Federal Savings Bank of FL
Attn: Susan McClamma
804 South Ohio Avenue
PO BOX Q
Love Oak, FL 32064
Tel# (386) 362-3433
God Bless You for Any Help in Advance,
Rev. William Asarisi
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