The Sunday Mail
Tariro Charandura Religion Writer
THE increased use of social media platforms amongst believers is exposing them to financial scams as they seek to connect with their revered leaders for spiritual solutions to their problems, The Sunday Mail Religion has gathered.
It has emerged that believers, mainly Christians who are desperate to interact with their leaders and yet cannot physically access them, have fallen victim to fraudsters who create fake Facebook accounts.
The accounts are created under the names of popular personalities like United Family International Church founder, Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa and Prophetic, Healing and Deliverance Ministries leader, Prophet Walter Magaya.
The fraudsters post regular sermons and event updates.
While impersonating these high profile figures, they accept friend requests of believers and begin to deliver prophecies after gaining their trust.
A South Africa based avid follower of Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa said he was almost conned after he received prophecies from a cheat he believed to be Prophet Makandiwa.
“I am ‘friends’ with Prophet Makandiwa on Facebook. I requested friendship and he accepted. Together with many others, we are blessed by his biblical posts on the account. Later I was ‘located’ and he prophesied my problems. I was overjoyed, well initially at least,” he said.
He went on, “Strangely I was asked to sow a seed to a suffering child in a Nigerian hospital as soon as possible so that I would realise my breakthrough within one week. My spirit of discernment began to doubt if this was the genuine prophet.
“But on his account profile were his details. New pictures of him and wife were always being posted. I wondered if the others following him could be wrong. The pictures and biblical messages he posts on the page and the responses from the masses made me think my breakthrough was on its way. They are quite convincing,” he said.
Prophet Makandiwa’s spokesperson pastor Prime Kufakunesu distanced the charismatic prophet from the Facebook account.
“There is only one Facebook page for Emmanuel Makandiwa. There is nothing that stops anyone from creating a Facebook page under anyone’s name and unfortunately there is not much we can do about it.”
This has raised concern over the risks that social media presents to people despite facilitating easier interaction among them.
Anglican Church Reverend Shepherd Munzara said people are being conned as they had lost their identity.
“People now want to be associated with the name Christ but don’t know who Jesus Christ really is. That’s a major problem we are facing with a lot of self proclaimed Christians” said Rev Munzara.
“It is the fulfilment of scriptures that was mentioned in the Bible. Most Christians now want instant blessings and instant miracles, that’s why most of them are scammed on these social media platforms. Suspended logic is now used by people.
“Chain messages are also another issue, they consist of messages that try to convince the reader to pass it on continuously and threaten to harm if the chain is broken.
‘‘The WhatsApp social platform has the highest rate of chain messages, according to statistics,” he said.
Rev Munzara said people should take authority from the scriptures, not from people on Facebook or WhatsApp.
“Christians can use modern day technology but God is not cheap like that, no biblical blessing was ever promised if one forwards a message.
“Instant blessings do not exist, people must learn to pray and work for their blessings such that they will not have to expect miracles from Facebook pages or things like that,” he said.
Scambusters.org highlighted that there have been at least 850 000 Facebook scams and identity theft is among the top scams on the social media platform.
“In this scam, crooks hack and clone a victim’s page and pose as them. Then they try to scam money out of the victim’s friends, usually by claiming to be in financial trouble,” the online source states in reference to identity theft.
Professor of sociology and also a bishop, Marvelous Mhloyi, said it is unfortunate that in addition to not knowing the Bible, people are now just seeking miracles.
“Why would a true Christian believe that his or her miracle will come via Facebook or WhatsApp chats?
‘‘Know God first and even the spirit of discernment will be upon you. Blessings or curses don’t come from social media messages. Your own prayer to God will bring you blessings,” she said.
