Scam emails, text messages and What’s App messages

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen an increase in the number of spam messages being sent through email.   Some of our staff have also started receiving spam/fake messages via text messages and What’s App messages on their phone.

The messages are not from the actual priest’s email (ie their account has not been compromised).  Rather the messages are from fake email accounts/phone numbers purporting to be Bishop Pat or a priest of the Diocese.   The content of the message is usually that they have urgent work or need a favour from the recipient.   Sometimes there is a link to click or a phone number to call.    We encourage you to be very vigilant when receiving messages and to check the detail of the address or phone number.  Checking the details of an email address are relatively easy on a computer but often harder to determine when reading an email message on a phone or other portable device.    The numbers that text and What’s App messages come from are typically international numbers so that’s an immediate indication that the message is fake as our priests typically have New Zealand mobile phone numbers.

Today we have had a report of a parishioner starting a new email message to a priest who she regularly sends email to.  Instead of that priest’s correct email address the address panel had the fake email address from spam even though that spam email had been permanently deleted.  This is the first report of this type.  As a precaution we recommend that you carefully check the email address that you are sending to, especially when writing emails to priests.

As a precaution, please alert your communities including personal contacts about this scam.   Please ask them NOT to respond to emails/messages they receive.  If in doubt they should verify the sender of the message by another method.  If the message is fake our recommendation is that emails should be permanently deleted (hold the shift key down as you delete the message).  Similarly we would recommend you delete or block any text/What’s App messages.

The Diocese has reported these messages to the NZ Police and Department of Internal Affairs.   More information on how to protect from these types of scams can be found on the NZ Police Website: https://www.police.govt.nz/advice/email-and-internet-safety/internet-scams-spam-and-fraud and the Department of Internal Affairs website: https://www.dia.govt.nz/Spam.