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Recently, some of our church members have been contacted by a scammer. Persons contacted received text messages that appeared to be from our Pastor who was asking for the member to purchase eBay gift cards for an urgent charitable need.
Please know that neither our Pastor nor any church officer would make such a request. Should anyone receive a suspicious message, phone call, letter, or email that appears to be from the Pastor or the Church trying to solicit funds or your personal information, please contact the Church Office so we can be made aware of what is happening.
Legitimate Church fundraisers are always publicized in our bulletins, newsletters, the Church website, and the Church’s Facebook page. But even still, it is not impossible for a hacker to get into online sites and make changes. We hear about these things happening to individuals and organizations quite often. So, we need to be wary of anyone asking us for money or our personal information. Always be willing to question something that looks suspicious.
Some links related to eBay scams are listed below. Also, there are links with information on scams and how to avoid them.
https://pages.ebay.com/giftcardscams/
https://www.aura.com/learn/ebay-gift-card-scams
https://www.verizon.com/articles/device-protection/caller-id-spoofing/
https://www.usa.gov/common-scams-frauds
https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams
https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/report-phishing
https://scamspotter.org/
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