US pastor Rick Warren issued a warning on Saturday about the large number of fake ‘Rick Warren Facebook’ pages which are soliciting donations from people in the name of his late son, Matthew.
In a message posted on his Facebook page on Saturday, the Californian-based pastor – author of The Purpose Driven Life – said “unscrupulous crooks are ripping off people” by setting up false Facebook pages and asking people for money.
“They are all fake,” he wrote. “We’ve shut down over 150 of these fake Facebook pages but new ones keep multiplying daily.”
Pastor Warren has asked his almost 400,000 followers to do three things: “unfriend” any fake Rick Warren pages. like his real page, and pass on the request on “to others who may have been scammed for money by a fake page pretending to be me”.
Pastor Warren’s 27-year-old son Matthew committed suicide in April after battling depression for most of his life.
The real Facebook page address is http://www.facebook.com/pastorrickwarren.
~ For support and information about suicide prevention in Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
