Yesterday I got an email from a guy named Joshua Walton and this is what it said:
Salute, I send you this brief email to solicit your partnership to legally convey a reasonable amount of money from my country to your country at which you will greatly benefit from. This is highly legal. I shall furnish you with more information after i receive a positive reply from you. Your prompt response is highly anticipated. Regards,
J. Walton.
I’ve heard of emails like this for years and I’m surprised how often people actually fall prey to these deceptions, although we can look at this and see it’s a scam from a mile away.
Maybe my lack of trust in Joshua’s email offer was his email address of [email protected] that seemed curious, or the odd choice of words like “Salute” and “solicit your partnership.” Perhaps it was the need to state this transaction is “highly-legal.” What seemed like an obvious Amway tactic to me, was the restriction to give me more info only after I reply in a positive (i.e. “sucker”) response to his email.
Hey, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck…
Lucky I was not deceived by his eloquent email but many people will allow themselves to be deceived because they want it to be true, That’s the thing about being self-deceived. We believe what we want to believe, because we want something so badly. The term “cognitive dissonance” is the confusion one experiences when presented with new information that contradicts what he or she believes to be true. This often will help us discern what is worthy of trust or not.
So who can you trust anymore?
The world today is riddled with a lack of trust. Public figures fall from grace daily, and even the most trusted leaders can be dashed upon the rocks in a shipwreck of deceit. Today’s youth will not TRUST marriage because of all the divorce these seen around them. Millennials don’t TRUST the societal norms because so many things seem broken and empty. One side of our government won’t TRUST the other, and we are all left wondering who can you TRUST anymore.
You have two choices; give up, crawl into a hole and miss out on life, or you can dive in deep and search for truth.
This is one of the reasons we have the DFW Technology Prayer Breakfast. We invite friends, neighbors and coworkers to come hear how Jesus Christ has changed the lives of leaders in the DFW Technology Community. Not that a story from Pat Gelsinger of VMware or Onyeka Nchege of Interstate Batteries is all you need to trust that the GOD of the Bible is the one true GOD; but it’s a start.
Jesus Christ directed Christians (those of us who would believe and follow Him), to go make Disciples of the world – that includes our business world. I want to make a difference in the lives of everyone I meet and work with. Your faith is just as important as your annual sales or technology road map. We have the opportunity to walk along side our business associates and boldly live out our faith so others come to TRUST in the GOD of the Bible.
I hope you will join us for our annual event and see for yourself. Come to this event with an open mind because the person who invited you is trustworthy enough to take a chance on; unlike our Nigerian Prince above. We won’t ask you to send us your social security number or bank account to get more information. But we will ask you to come, listen, and decide for yourself.
Robert Hunt
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberthuntceo/
