“I am from the Windows company…”

The telephone rings. I answer with my number. “I am from the Windows company… I am ringing to tell you that there is a problem with your computer.” The lady does not actually know whether I have a computer. She cannot tell me what type of computer I have. She does not know what Internet Service provider I am with. She does not have my account number, but she is after something. She probably wants to take over my computer for criminal purposes, and is likely to leave me with less money than I started with.

Recently, I have had several calls from the “British Telecom Broadband Blocking Department”, trying to tell me that my Broadband line will be blocked in two hours’ time, because my computer is not secure, or something of the sort. Meanwhile, “Visa Secure” and “your bank” have both taken to telephoning me in the last couple of weeks, with pre-recorded messages telling me that someone has just taken £600 from my bank account. If I want to speak to someone – for example, to tell them that it was not me who took the money out – then I need to “Press One” on my telephone. Then what would happen? What electronic trickery does that set in motion?

How can human beings do this sort of thing to other people? Do they have no conscience, as well as no feelings? Very often, the people who are duped are those who can least afford to lose money. Around one hundred years ago, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (the Son of Bahá’u’lláh) said that, “In a time to come, morals will degenerate to an extreme degree.” All these people who spend their time ringing round their fellow human beings with spurious information seem to be manifesting total dishonesty. They have no consideration for their victims, and are showing that they are either immoral or amoral. Maybe they think that they are clever, being able to trick others with their stories.

But we are also being offered other types of dishonesty. There are some politicians across the world who openly offer complete untruths as if they were fact, or steadfastly deny things which are obviously true. Likewise some people circulate completely made-up news online. At the same time, facts supported by research, video evidence and the like, are now summarily dismissed by many as “fake news”! There are newspapers who do not report the facts, because their owners and editors have a separate agenda of their own. Bahá’u’lláh urged newspapers to serve humanity, by attempting to print the truth: “The pages of swiftly-appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world. They reflect the deeds and the pursuits of divers peoples and kindreds. They both reflect them and make them known. They are a mirror endowed with hearing, sight and speech. This is an amazing and potent phenomenon. However, it behoveth the writers thereof to be purged from the promptings of evil passions and desires and to be attired with the raiment of justice and equity. They should enquire into situations as much as possible and ascertain the facts, then set them down in writing.” The same principle must surely apply to online news.

Meanwhile, supposedly bona fide companies such as banks lure customers in with an openly stated (and lucrative) rate of interest. After a few months, the rate is changed, downwards, with complete disregard for the effect on the customers involved. Other companies, utility companies for example, attract new customers with a lower rate of charges, but leave their existing customers on a higher rate. What they are actually doing is charging their loyal customers a higher price for the same services. Loyalty is being penalised by such companies! Bahá’u’lláh emphasised trustworthiness as essential for the promotion of all human enterprise: “Trustworthiness is the greatest portal leading unto the tranquillity and security of the people. In truth the stability of every affair hath depended and doth depend upon it.” If we cannot trust one another we cannot build a successful society.

Some people do not seem to realise that the good of the part is to be found in the good of the whole. In the Bahá’í view, children should be raised with the idea that they are part of society, and should be contributing towards it, rather than taking from it. For this reason, Bahá’í communities institute neighbourhood children’s classes, based on the promotion of virtues, such as honesty, trustworthiness, empathy, generosity, kindness and so on.

There needs to be the sense of all mankind co-operating, working together, as one. Each should be trying to promote the well-being of their fellow human beings, rather than trying to take money off them. People should be in gainful employment, not involved in illicit activities. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, explaining the Bahá’í view of work, stated that: “In the Bahá’í Cause, arts, sciences and all crafts are counted as worship. The man who makes a piece of note-paper to the best of his ability, conscientiously, concentrating all his forces on perfecting it, is giving praise to God. Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity.”

There is also the teaching in all religions, known as the Golden Rule, in which people are advised: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. This should have prevented people, in any culture, from trying to trick other people out of money. Bahá’u’lláh expresses this in even sharper contrast: “Blessed is he who preferreth his neighbour to himself.”

If everyone tried to follow that rule of behaviour, the world would be blessed with much more kindness, and much less trickery, and we would all prosper together.