The Central East Region (CER) staff have heard from some congregations that yet another phishing scam is making the rounds of some of our churches. In this scam, someone is reaching out via email or phone asking for a copy of the directory. In these cases the emails are ones for the staff or board of the congregation and in the case of the phone calls, the calls are coming up on caller ID as the church phone number. Scammers are trying to get the directory either for doxing and harassment reasons or to sell the information on the black market.

This is not the first time we’ve heard that spammers are asking for directories, but it’s an uptick from previous months.

As we have advised the congregations who have reached out — please take these steps now before this happens in your congregation.

Please educate your members and friends through your email lists, newsletter and announcements at the church to not to respond to these sorts of requests. That no one will ask you to give them the directory or other confidential information nor will anyone ask you to purchase gift cards for them. If someone does reach out and seems like a person we need to respond to please reply back to them in a different manner (different email, text, phone) do not reply to the email, text or phone number you were contacted by.

We are also recommending that congregations review their websites and see how many email addresses are on your website. This is where a lot of spammers get their information. If you can remove email addresses from your website and switch to using a contact form that will help protect your staff and leaders whose information is exposed to the public. You may have noticed that the UUA has removed the congregational life staff contact info from the website unless you are logged in and this is the exact reason why.

There are resources on the UUA website in the LeaderLab that can be helpful and have additional recommendations.

• Don’t Let the Scammers Take Advantage During Anxious Times
• Recent Phishing Scams Targeting UUs
• The Community Resilience Hub has many resources and information that can help your congregation.
• The Safe Congregations team has a section on social media and communications policies, which you may want to review.

If your congregation or staff has experienced a phishing incident, vandalism or incidents of bigotry and hate, please complete the Congregational Incident Form. The information collected will help support you and other leaders going forward.

Your congregational life staff are here to help you with these challenges. If you have additional questions please reach out to your primary contact or use our partnership form and we’ll be in touch.