No Conscience - No Morals

I subscribe to an e-mail newsletter called Internet Scambusters. I am no longer shocked at the depths of amorality and immorality that people use to bilk others out of money illegally. But one of the stories this past week hit me and led to some strong anger and indignation. Here is part of what the story said:

In a particularly insidious scam, telephone callers pretending
to be Red Cross representatives are contacting military
families with relatives overseas, claiming that a family
member has been hurt, and that personal and financial
information must be supplied before treatment can begin.

Therefore, scammers have found that this is an effective way
to get military spouses to give personal and financial
information that they would not usually consider giving out.
After all, they want to make sure their spouse is treated as
quickly as possible.

I am sure that even otherwise world-wise and Internet savvy individuals could get sucked into this one. The information wrongly presented in these calls never gets to the "thinking" part of the brain and instead connects powerfully with the emotional, instinctual-response part. Who wouldn't immediately give the information!

That someone can look at a situation like people serving in the military and jump to ways of stealing information and money from their families is beyond me. It angers me. It fills me with sadness and fear for our human race.

But then again, I remember a statement from my Old Testament professor years ago. He was no conservative/fundamentalist by any measure of those words. But early in the introductory course, somewhere around Adam and Eve, he would make this deeply profound statement that would make us all sit up:

The longer you are in the ministry, the more you will discover that the only provable Biblical doctrine is original sin.Sadly, I haven't been able to disagree.

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NOTE: The Red Cross has issued a press release about this practice. You can access it at their Web Site. It says in part:

"The American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military members/dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or first sergeant channels. Military family members are urged not to give out any personal information over the phone if contacted by unknown/unverified individuals, to include confirmation that your spouse is deployed."