Eugene, Ore. – Police in Eugene warn a new scam struck over the weekend, and may spread across the state. Eugene PD Community Engagement Specialist Janina Rager first found out about the scam Sunday, at church. “Our pastor announced that if anyone was getting text messages from him asking for money, it was a scam.” She says she then received other reports from officers, “Several other pastors were being victimized as well.”
Rager says fraudsters pose as the pastor in a text or email, “Probably looking up all the pastors of various churches; probably more than just Eugene. I’m not sure at this point what the extent goes or how broad it is.” She says they’re targeting who they think will be sympathetic- big-hearted people who want to assist others, adding, “The text is usually urgent: ‘Hey, I need some help.’ In one of the cases, it was, ‘Hey could you handle this discreetly?’ Because they don’t like you talking to people.” In another incident, she says the scammers asked, “‘Could you go get some $100 gift cards so that we can buy things for some people that are having problems. But, I’m really busy. Could you just send me photos of the gift card numbers?’” Luckily, the intended victim realized the request for photos instead of the actual cards was not normal, and called police.
The messages have the typical red flags: A sense of urgency, requests for privacy or discretion and excuses for why the victim should not show up in person or call directly. Rager says, “All in all, if you get anything from a pastor or anyone involved in your church requesting money, I would just call your church directly at a well-known number and ask, ‘is this [message] really the church?’ And you’re probably going to get the answer, ‘No, it’s not.’” You can also report it to the FBI…