Dear friends,
As you might have heard, while I was on vacation last week, someone phoned several members of our community, using spoofing technology that disguised their phone number as the church’s, claiming to be me. In addition, email scams continue to circulate occasionally, where someone impersonates me (or Moderator Linda Young), using different email addresses than our own.
These occurrences are troubling and confusing – and also relatively common for churches in 2021 (see below). I’m so sorry that being part of a faith community today means being prepared for something like this. Being separated due to Covid-19 makes it even harder; I wish we could all see each other on Sunday and laugh this off at coffee hour.
However, with just a few adjustments in our behavior, we can ensure that these scams and spoof calls don’t take over our lives. Furthermore, we can decrease the likelihood of these events repeating themselves. Here’s an overview of what we know right now, and how we can best respond going forward.
1. Clearly, someone (or multiple people) has access to our church directory who shouldn't have access. This could have happened in a few ways: a) a physical directory got into the wrong hands; b) a congregant’s email was hacked or their computer otherwise compromised, and the directory was accessed that way. None of ACC staff email addresses, phone numbers, nor our newsletter system, have been compromised.
2. We should expect scams (and perhaps phone impersonations) to continue. The most we can do to stop them at this point is to train ourselves to spot them immediately and never engage with the scammer.
We are working on finding a cybersecurity expert who might be able to provide a comprehensive training that’s appropriate for ACC folks. In the meantime, please check out these helpful links for more information about how to protect yourself in the case of either occurrence.
Just as with the Covid-19 virus, everyone’s security is strengthened by all of us becoming more knowledgeable and better-equipped against these threats.
Email Scams
Bottom line: Read emails carefully, verify email addresses, and always confirm requests if you have a suspicion. If it’s a scam email, drag it into the spam folder and don’t reply.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2019/07/worshipers-targeted-gift-card-scam
Phone Calls
Bottom line: If it’s not the person you expected, don’t hang on, just hang up.
https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/avoid_spoofing_scams_english.pdf