And what to do if you think you have been
In the ever-evolving world of email and phone scams, the scammers love to target faith communities, because they figure we all trust each other and want to help each other out. Pretty scummy.
Another scam went into action today, and many of you received text messages purporting to be from Amy; if you responded to them, you’d get another one asking you to please get a gift card for someone in need at church.
Cat and I will never ask you for gift cards, nor will anyone else at UUCPA. Listen to those alarm bells if:
- The phone number or email address is unfamiliar. (Look for the uucpa.org domain–if it’s not there, it’s not a UUCPA staff person.)
- The person expresses urgency or says they can’t talk.
If you’re not sure:
- Using the phone numbers and emails you already have, contact the supposed sender and confirm.
- When in doubt, don’t give money or personal information. If by chance you are talking to the real UUCPA staff person when you say you need to confirm their identity, they will not be offended. Only fakers will.
- Don’t let anyone pressure you. We’re not an emergency room–nothing at UUCPA is life-and-death urgent.
If you ever do buy a gift card and then realize it was probably a scam:
- Call the issuer of the card immediately. If they act fast, they can sometimes get the scammer’s information and prosecute, and of course stop the payment from you.
We will do all we can to prevent this, for example, changing our passwords frequently, but there are people working full time to circumvent such measures. So please be cautious. And please do change any UUCPA-related passwords of your own as well.