wfn.org | UMNS# 05046-Take precautions when giving online,

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Take precautions when giving online, UMCOR executive says

Jan. 19, 2005	 News media contact:   Tim  Tanton * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05046}

NOTE: Related materials are available online at http://umns.umc.org.

By Elliott Wright*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - 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."

# # #

*Wright is the information officer of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org