As I continue to hear from parishioners about contacts from my online impostor, I have continued to do what I can to trace it to its source and to stop people from falling prey to these emails and texts. I have filed complaints with Google who operates Gmail and with the FBI’s internet crimes division.
Someone this past week spent a $1000 on prepaid gift cards this last week due to these schemes. This can’t keep happening.
Look to see who actually sent the email and what email address it came from. I have one email address: frtim@queenschurch.com. The only other address I connect with you online should be the one you see below, the group messaging service that sends out this weekly communication to the whole parish:
FROM FR. TIM <message@e.diocesan.com>
These fraudulent emails are coming from many fake addresses like:
priestp72@gmail.com
bluescabng@gmail.com
Don’t open the message or respond to it, and under no circumstances spend the money. Credit card companies will not reimburse you. The scammers are going to ask you to buy prepaid gift cards or credit cards, take photos of the numbers on the back and send those pictures to them.
Some people have received text messages asking for the same thing from a fake #: 507.250.8977. That is not my number. It is a Rochester, MN area code.
Text messages give you an option ‘report as junk’ and so do emails. If you click on the address, sometimes your email server allows you to report these contacts as junk, spam or phishing and to report it, and even to block the contact. You should do this to help create a digital trail that leads back to the culprits who are trying to cheat innocent people out of their hard earned money.
I have read some of the messages. The perpetrator is writing in very formal and flowery language, not the way I speak. They sign off saying ‘in Christ’s love,’ again, not a phrase I use. They often sign name as ‘Timothy’ which I don’t use unless signing a check or a formal letter.
If all else fails, please call the office and ask to speak to me to authenticate any request that seems out of the ordinary. Don’t spend the money and send what is requested before trying to verify it.
The only way to make this scam attack stop is for all of us to deprive them of success in their effort to enrich themselves under the false pretenses of pretending to be me asking you for help.
