‘Memo to the Grand Masters’

    

Complete and utter bullshit. A subliterate mission statement, a bogus phone number, updates posted around the clock every day consisting of platitudinous memes without any real Florida information. These are all over Facebook. Grand Masters, you can fight this, and you should.

The next meeting of the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America will convene the weekend of February 17 in Seattle, and I have a suggestion, if I may be so forward. (My Grand Master is chairman, so I’m making an effort to be respectful here.)

Amid all the planning of brilliant, forward-thinking initiatives, put together a system in which all Conference members pay into a fund that will be used to retain one law firm that will contact the social media companies that allow frauds to impersonate our grand lodges and other legitimate Masonic groups.

You have rights. And responsibilities! “To preserve the reputation of the fraternity unsullied must be your constant care.”

Real grand lodges in this country all—I’m assuming—are incorporated in their respective states. You don’t have to accept some clod(s) operating Facebook accounts in your members’ names.

My social media activity is very limited, but even I can see on Facebook the increasing number of bogus accounts purporting to be legit Masonic bodies. The most prolific as of tonight, it seems to me, are those claiming to be the grand lodges of Texas and North Carolina.

13,000 followers?!

The “Texas” contact info includes a phone number with area code 518. That’s the Albany, New York area. The Grand Lodge of New York doesn’t maintain an office in Albany, so don’t ask me what the Texans supposedly are doing up there. And I think the WhatsApp button is an Illuminati Brotherhood dead giveaway.

MW Bill Sardone, a frequent victim of impersonation, used to get phone calls at his Masonic Hall office from hapless naifs asking when they should report in person to begin their Masonic journeys.

The perpetrators’ motivations? To extract money and identity information.

Complaining to Facebook via Facebook as a Facebook user will get you nowhere. They’ll tell you to block the impostor, as if that will solve anything. Facebook will, however, take seriously a letter from your attorney. But you need the attorney. Not your sister-in-law who botches real estate closings; not the personal injury guy you know from Scottish Rite; and never anyone from the grand lodge in New Jersey. No, hire social media law specialists.

It won’t be expensive because you’ll never go to court. A demand letter for each instance really should suffice, which means you need only the resolve to combat this fraud.

The frauds could be from one perpetrator, judging from the same photos cross-posted at practically the same times. Probably a kid too.

This is feasible. It’s even easy. It’s the kind of accomplishment you can talk about every year when racking up more successes and brag about when you return home.

The next problem is why the impostors are more determined than the grand lodges to leverage social media. (The Conference’s Facebook page hasn’t seen an update since February 21.) Listen, I don’t have all the answers.

UPDATE: DECEMBER 14–“Samuel Jacob” of Nigeria has merch!