Avoiding Scam Emails

Some members of the parish may have received a scam email today or recently purporting to come from the Rector, and asking for assistance in buying online gift cards to be reimbursed later. THIS IS A SCAM.

You can know that it is a scam by three things:

1. The email doesn’t come from the Rector of Chingford email address but from a randomly generated email address. Check the address after the name, which might spoof my own. If it isn’t the Rector’s email address, it isn’t from me.
2. The email is asking you to buy gift cards – I will never do that.
3. The email makes an excuse for why I can’t talk to you right now – again, if I were to ask you to do something out of the blue, I would ALWAYS give you the opportunity to talk to me.

If you have received such an email recently, could you please forward the original scam email to the government’s digital security address:

If you have received an email which you’re not quite sure about, forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS):

report@phishing.gov.uk

The message might be from a company you don’t normally receive communications from, or someone you do not know. You may just have a hunch. If you are suspicious, you should report it.
Your report of a phishing email will help us to act quickly, protecting many more people from being affected.

Thank you for your wisdom and patience in dealing with such a nuisance.

Justin