E-MAIL SCAMS

Recently, someone using a fake email address tried to send a scam posing as an official district communication. It's part of an ongoing scam that has targeted church and non-profit organizations. In the past year alone, similar ones have gone out pretending to be the district moderator, various denominational staff, and other church leaders. It's usually done by intercepting a group email from one of the recipients and/or harvesting information from the website to create a forgery. Some tips for spotting a fake:

• Look at the email address it's coming from. Is it the actual one typically used by the person in question?
• Is it asking for an unusual favor or wanting you to send cash or some personal information?
• Does it contain misspellings (such as "Church of the Brethen"!), incorrect grammar, or other odd phrasing?
• Does it otherwise seem suspicious or out of character? A good general rule of thumb: If it seems suspicious, it probably is.

If you get an email like this from anyone, do not respond. The best thing to do is report it as a phishing scam to your email provider (there's usually a simple button to do that) and then to delete it. Be smart, and be safe!