On Monday, Rev. Bartholomew Orr, senior pastor of the Brown Missionary Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee spoke out to Fox 13 News about scammers using his likeness to fleece people out of money using the payment service Cash App.
“It’s sad that people not only use me, but even just the church to defraud individuals,” said Orr.
"He said it all started during his birthday month of June, when members of the clergy tried to send him birthday gifts via Cash App," reported Kate Bieri. "'I discovered that someone had created what looked like was the exact same cash tag as mine,' Rev. Orr said. 'It just had a little green symbol, making it seem authentic. And they were actually receiving gifts from people.' He told FOX13 that he immediately contacted Cash App to try and remove the accounts stealing his likeness, but that in two months, nothing has been done. He suspects members of the clergy have lost hundreds of dollars to scammers."
Orr had a blunt message for the scammers: “Get a job. It’s wrong. You shouldn’t do it. You wouldn’t want anyone to take from you and to steal from your family."
Online scams are more common than ever, and frequently prey on people around the country. It is estimated that last year alone, people worldwide lost nearly $7 billion to internet scammers of various types.
One particularly controversial scammer appears to be former President Donald Trump himself, as his fundraising practices — while not charged as criminal fraud — have raised eyebrows from campaign finance experts, both for the use of misleading sales tactics, and sneaky use of pre-checked checkboxes to make donations recur monthly.
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