Phishing Scam - A reminder!
Dear friends & members of St. Matt's,
Phishing is "the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies or persons in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, to acquire money or gifts." You can read more about how to identify scams like this here.
In the last few days, a few parishioners have (again) received emails from a fake email address claiming to be me. Apparently, whoever set up this scam to impersonate me has even used a photograph of me as the image attached to the address. Please remember a few things:
- I will never email you from an address that isn't [email protected]. Always look to make sure the message came from St. Matthew's.
- My email has not been hacked, so anything you might have sent me is safe. These are other addresses set up by someone trying to impersonate me. The best thing you can do is report the email as phishing and ignore it.
- I will not send you odd emails asking for favors or gifts. I won't ask you for cash or personal information. (I shouldn't have to say that, but there it is!)
- If you get something that strikes you as odd, send me a note or give me a call and ask about it.
Unfortunately, this is a common scam. It happens to clergy people all around the country all the time. I have many colleagues who experience this far more regularly than I do. It is even currently happening to one of our Bishops. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it except report the address and ignore the requests. Please don't hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions.
Faithfully,
--Marissa +
Tags: Welcome from the Rector