Billy Graham Association sues click-bait website for using evangelist's name and images

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) sued a click-bait website Wednesday, June 29 for using Billy Graham's name and images to lure users.

According to wlos.com, the association founded by world-renowned evangelical leader Billy Graham filed a federal lawsuit against the website GodToday.com for using the preacher's "name, image or likeness" to "lure users."

Screenshots taken from Facebook of Graham's images on sponsored ads with a call to action text that reads, "LIKE if you love Billy Graham" are used as incriminating evidence by the BGEA attorneys.

The click-bait website already garnered more than 2 million likes on Facebook but provides no information or link for contact details and has missing "About" information on its Facebook page. Most of the stories are also using just the two bylines of either "John" or "Hunter."

According to wscotv.com, attorneys for BGEA noted that the website posted at least 14 articles on Billy Graham. The lawsuit slammed the owner for being "clandestine" and named only as "John Doe" for legal identification.

"John Doe simply republishes portions of Billy Graham's literary works – some of them more than 40 years old – without authorization from BGEA," read a statement in the lawsuit.

Almost three years ago, The Christian Post reported a con artist's attempt to scam believers of their money by using a fake Facebook page of Joyce Meyer and by involving a real charity in Nigeria, Christ Foundation Orphanage Home, in its messages. The fake account also happened to misspell the Evangelical leader's name as "Joyce Mayer."

"God bless you sister, As you apply the principles of God's supernatural economy (seed-time and harvest, regardless of the circumstances around you), you can rise above all the challenges that the world will face during the coming weeks and months!" the publication quoted a message of the fake account to its targets as saying.

The scammer then proceeded to send private messages to solicit money and to press on with "prophetic word" attempts and such until the money was sent by the unsuspecting victims.