Scam alert - Priest
request for gift card - courtesy Archdiocese of Toronto website
An email scam targeting parishioners in
Catholic churches across Canada is now active in the Archdiocese of Toronto.
The
scam, previously reported by several other dioceses, has now appeared in our
own diocese with reports of at least one parishioner who lost $300 to a
fraudster pretending to be the pastor of a parish. Several other dioceses had
reported an email scam in which Catholics have received requests, purportedly
from their parish priests, for iTunes gift cards. A false email from a priest
is sent asking for the electronic gift cards to be sent to another address so
that they may be given to someone in need.
Please exercise
caution when checking email messages. Think before you click or open
attachments, and always verify suspect messages by phoning the sender on a
known phone number (not the phone number in the suspect message).