If you receive an email from someone using my name or the name of a member of the ministry team asking for money, or gift cards, or telling you I need you to call, please ignore such emails, or block the sender and delete it. Do not answer the email. These emails are not from me or from a member of the ministry team. They are a scam.
There are so many scams. It seems a day rarely goes by in which I don’t receive a phone call on either my cell phone or my landline from someone claiming to be from Revenue Canada to inform me that my Social Insurance Number is going to be cancelled, or from someone claiming to be from VISA to say that there has been suspicious activity on my credit card, or from someone else claiming to be from Microsoft to inform me that my computer has a serious virus. Have you received any calls like these? All of these messages are scams. Each one is an attempt by someone to gain access to our accounts in order to steal money or even identity. They will inevitably ask for bank account information, SIN numbers, or computer passwords. DO NOT GIVE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION. The best thing to do is to hang up immediately.
One scam I have heard about from several of our members and even from my own mother, specifically targets seniors. It comes in the form of a phone call from a young person identifying themself as your grandson or granddaughter. They will inform you that they have gotten into a bit of trouble, but don’t want their parents to know and so could you please help them by delivering an envelope of cash to a particular address asap, but please tell no one. It is a scam. Hang up. There are many scams that target seniors and others that specifically target new Canadians and refugees.
Be warned. Last year alone in Canada there were almost 42,000 victims of such fraud and 569 million dollars was stolen from Canadians through such schemes.
Scam artists use not only the telephone, but also email. Members of the ministry team have received numerous emails from someone using my name and informing them that I am in a bind and need help immediately with either money or gift cards. While the scam email will use my name, these emails all come from an email address that is not my own. Recently a senior in the church told me that she had received such an email and was very concerned for me and went to her bank ready to make a transfer. Fortunately, her bank told her the email was a scam. Please note: IGNORE ANY EMAILS USING MY NAME ASKING FOR MONEY OR ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION. I will never send any such email and neither will anyone in the employment of the church.
With the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) these scams will undoubtedly become more sophisticated. There may be phone messages in which someone’s voice is being imitated, or even video messages in which their voice and face have been duplicated using sophisticated computer programming.
To learn more about how to protect yourself from such scams please visit the government website at: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/campaigns/fraud-scams.html
