HANOVER – A parishioner at St. Thomas Episcopal Church purchased over $1,000 in gift cards at the request of an email she believed came from her pastor. Then she got another email asking for more money.
On Tuesday, Rector Guy Collins received a couple of emails from the parishioner, checking to see if he received the gift cards.
He didn’t. He never asked for them.
“It’s really evil, because it’s tugging on the heartstrings of very kind, very generous people,” Collins told the Valley News in an interview.
Collins declined to identify the parishioner, who spent $1,200 on gift cards and sent photos of them to the email account before returning to CVS to purchase another $800 worth.
But realizing it was a scam after getting in touch with Collins, she did not send additional pictures of the gift cards.
“Please be aware that there is an email scam being sent to St Thomas parishioners from someone posing as the Rector Guy Collins,” the church stated in an official email to parishioners the day they learned of the phishing scam. “The message is so believable that a member of our community recently lost a lot of money by responding to this imposter.”
Collins then heard from at least half a dozen other parishioners who said they had received a similar email, but ignored it.
According to Collins, the email asked parishioners to help him surprise someone with a gift.
The email told parishioners “I just didn’t have the time to do it because I was away on a conference,” Collins said. “I was not.”
The email used not only Collins’ name, but also included names of other church members.
“Father Guy, clergy members or St Thomas staff will NEVER ask parishioners for gift cards or money,” the official church email told parishioners in the wake of the scam.
The only time the church will ask for money is once a year in a mailed pledge drive that goes through U.S. mail to supporters of the parish, Collins said.
“There’s a special mailing that comes in the autumn,” he said. “That has not gone out yet. It’s always around about mid-October, so we’re coming up on that time.”
Collins told the Valley News that the one parishioner who was a victim of the scam reached out to police.
“If you believe you have already been scammed, please report it to the police and then let us know so we can determine how we can support you,” the church told parishioners in its official email on Tuesday.
Phone and email efforts to reach Hanover Police Chief James Martin were not immediately successful on Thursday.
“They assume that the scammer is working from outside the country, and they just don’t have evidence,” Collins said about what he gathered from police so far. “There’s just very little they can do.”
Collins said the church has reached out to its insurers about making the parishioner whole again, which the company is “in the process of doing” pending the completion of an investigation.
“They have told us there is no deductible. It will be paid,” he said. “But if that turns out not to be the case, we will cover that difference.”
“If you believe you have already been scammed, please report it to the police and then let us know so we can determine how we can support you,” the church told parishioners in its official email on Tuesday.
Hanover police told Collins to report similar scams to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
An alert on the webpage states: “Scammers are Impersonating the IC3 … The IC3 does not work with any non-law enforcement entity, such as law firms or crypto services, to recuperate lost funds or investigate cases. The IC3 will never directly contact you for information or money.”
