Mars church warns to steer clear of phone scam
In its most recent church bulletin, St. John Lutheran Church in Mars warned its parishioners to steer clear of a phone scam intended to impersonate its pastor.
As described in the church bulletin, the scammers reach out to churchgoers while pretending to be Pastor Katie McNeal, then ask for electronic gift cards.
McNeal said that this is not the first time this scam has made the rounds, and that St. John’s is not the only church that has been targeted.
“(The scammers) will catch someone in the congregation. I’m not sure how they get the number,” McNeal said. “And then they say, ‘Hey, it’s Pastor so-and-so. Please get back to me.’ And they’ll say ‘I want online gift cards,’ or something like that.”
According to McNeal, she’s aware of no one who has taken the bait so far and lost money.
“It’s easy to spot, and it’s fairly obvious,” McNeal said. “Because they’re like, ’I need Apple gift cards.’”
However, in case people encounter one of these text messages, she does advise them to let the church know as soon as possible through a mode of communication other than the one the scammer used.
“I just tell folks to reach out using the communication that they have,” McNeal said. “If they have my number, call me or text me. If they have the church number, call the church. Just don’t use the same contact information that they were approached by.”
