The St Vincent de Paul Society has warned about bogus collectors operating in western Sydney pretending to be Vinnies volunteers collecting money to support visiting World Youth Day pilgrims.
The Society issued the warning on Friday that a number of people in communities in western Sydney had been deceived by people pretending to be volunteers collecting funds to support the pilgrims.
Julie McDonald, Community and Corporate Relations Manager of the Society NSW said: “Vinnies is very disappointed that in the midst of a spiritual celebration such as World Youth Day, that there are people misleading the public for their own gain.
“The public can make financial and material donations to the Winter Appeal through their local St Vincent de Paul Society Shop or www.vinnies.org.au.”
Tags: Youth
It is very sad when reports on such incidents and behavior come. But we cannot avoid such situations. Remember last Sunday Gospel reading and the parable of wheat and tares. If the WYD gathering is wheat. Scammers are tares.
Scamming is not the innovation of internet era. Whenever there are such big events like WYD, charitable campaigns or so, three are always some people who try to earn something pretending to be volunteers. But on the other hand. If SVDP were not reliable, important and widely recognized organization nobody would have tried to scam. Nobody paints false copies of non-important and little known artists.
There are people who want to helps other people and collect donations on behalf of needy. And there are people, who want to collect donations to help themselves using other people’s confidence.
Especially any religious gathering and event is endangered then. One of the basic safety tips is – beware of cheaters, thieves, scams and pretenders. It is very common to meet a fake priest or seminarian in such gatherings. It happens everywhere. The more people attend, more evildoers appear.
Whenever somebody goes to religious events and gatherings – stay aware, have eyes wide open, don’t be naive.