Scam Alert!

Recently, some of our parishioners and advertisers in our bulletin have received a text and/or email from someone who claims to be Rev. Douglas Bignall.  These texts and emails ask the receiver to send google play cards or Itune cards to Fr. Doug for an ill parishioner who is in need.  The emails asks for you to send the codes on the back of the cards after you have purchased them.

Please note that Fr. Doug would never send out emails or texts to anyone requesting money or the above mentioned cards.  Do not respond to these requests.

There is an article on the website www.consumeraffairs.com that gives details on this scam appearing to be from pastors of churches and what you can do to report the email or text. Below is a portion of that article:

The agency has three important recommendations that might save you, the consumer, from being ripped off.

• Don’t text back. Legitimate companies won’t ask you to verify your identity through unsecured channels, like text or email.
• Don’t click on any links within the message. Links can install malware on your device and take you to spoof sites to try to get your information.
• Report the message to your cell phone carrier’s spam text reporting number. If you’re an AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, or Bell customer, you can forward the text to 7726 (SPAM) free of charge.

The best advice might be to forward any suspicious emails or texts to the FTC via [email protected]. The FTC recommends that you also cc: the organization impersonated in the email/message -- a step that might give the scammer some pause before going ahead with their scheme. If at all possible, include the full email header. Header information is typically hidden, but a quick search for “full email header” and the name of your email service (for example, Yahoo) will give you the steps necessary to find that information.