VENICE, Fla. — The Diocese of Venice has issued a warning to parishioners to beware of hackers who are preying on their religion and benevolence to affect their latest scam.
Church officials said the hackers are posing as priests, church members, or workers to try and trick people into giving them money.
They said everyone, particularly the elderly, needs to be mindful of emails and text messages coming from anyone claiming to be part of the church because it's just another way hackers are coming for both money and personal information. Officials said the scam messages have become a problem and are increasing as Easter approaches.
"They'll write, for instance, a message and say, 'Hello, we talked just the other day, I have a big favor I need from you,' and then they sign it as the priest," said Roger Navarro, director of IT for the Diocese of Venice.
Managers in charge of the IT system for churches under the Diocese of Venice said they are seeing three to four different kinds of phishing message blasts from scammers per week. In the messages, hackers are using people or conversations familiar to the reader in hopes that they would become their next victim.
"The person immediately sees some rapport and says, 'Oh somebody of importance who needs help from me,' and they start the dialogue and from there it escalates to, 'Oh, I need a gift card for some family member in need can you go pick some up for me,'" explained Navarro.
The messages have taken various narratives to prey on vulnerable unsuspecting churchgoers, including the war in Ukraine.
With Easter and hurricane season approaching, officials said they expect an uptick in such phishing scams.
"It just evolves into a trick really at which point someone buys a gift card, sends it to the hackers via email or text, and then the money is gone," he said.
Navarro said when in doubt about the authenticity of an email or text message, parishioners should call the church office or the person who is mentioned in the message to verify. Church officials also said they would never ask for gift cards for church-related activities or donations.
"We would never request a gift in form of a gift card, which is primarily how these hackers are working. We would never ask for that whether it's via text, email, or a letter in the mail, it will not be how we do it. It's your alarm bell that something bad is happening," said Navarro.
Church officials said if you get such messages, take a picture of it or forward it to the IT department so they can investigate and then delete it right after.