Many of you have received a personal email signed by “Rev. Roger Jones” with the name of our church at the bottom. There is even a picture of him, lifted from the internet.  It is fraudulent.

It is not from any of his email addresses. That email address uses Roger’s name, so if you don’t look closely, you might not realize it’s not really Roger. It says something like “How are you doing? I need a favor from you so message me when you get this.” Those who reply to it get a response that seems to be from Roger. The criminals then ask you to buy gift cards for “women with cancer” and provide the PIN codes from those cards to them. This is not from Roger or UUSS.  Gift cards are a common way criminals are scamming people.

Anytime you get an email request for a donation, read it closely. Contact the sender but not by replying directly–just call the number you already have or send a fresh text or email to the contact information you already have. See more info in Rev. Lucy’s Ministerial Message on Tuesday, April 7, for more information how to avoid email and website scams and viruses.