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| Take Precautions When Giving Online, UMCOR Executive Says | |||
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NEW YORK - Online giving came of age for the United Methodist Committee on Relief and for many people in the church in response to the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean. More than a fourth of the $2 million given to UMCOR in the first two weeks of the relief efforts came from online credit card gifts. The online giving option was developed through a partnership between UMCOR and United Methodist Communications. "We have had very few problems in making a major shift to electronic giving," says Glenda Survance, director of information services at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, UMCOR's parent organization. "Online giving is extremely safe, but there are a few ways in which scam artists can mess up an occasional transaction," she continued. "So we have developed a short list of precautions that donors to UMCOR should follow." Use only Web sites that donors know are reliable, Survance advises. Do not use a charitable link sent in an e-mail. "E-mail links are risky," Survance says, "because an unsavory character can copy the look of a Web site but change just one little part of the address. The unsuspecting donor receives what appears to be a good e-mail with the phony link and thinks it is OK. Donors should always go to an authentic Internet site." "Spoofing" is the cyber term for the practice of stealing the appearance of a Web page and giving it a new address, which is then put into an e-mail that appears as though it came from someone else, generally someone trusted. "Of the thousands of online transactions in the tsunami relief effort, we are aware of only one incident in which UMCOR may have been spoofed," Survance reports. "This involved an e-mail received by a donor. "That is why we are saying very loudly: UMCOR is not using e-mail solicitations in the tsunami crisis. We are not alarmists, but we want every donor to UMCOR, every United Methodist in their online transactions, to be 100 percent safe all the time. "We have four Internet addresses that donors can select, and all of these link to the Kintera credit-card service that UMCOR is using for this emergency." The four addresses are: http://methodistrelief.org/, http://umc.org/, http://umcor.org/ and http://gbgm-umc.org/. The UMCOR "donate" button that links to Kintera is found at each site. The button also appears on many agency, annual conference and local church Web sites. Churches can learn more about adding the "donate" button to their sites by going to UMC.org. "Things have gone remarkably well in this our first major experience with online giving," Survance says. "We know it is the wave of the future, and we are ready at UMCOR and the General Board of Global Ministries." |
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