Email scam directed at Manchester church parishioners

Some Manchester St Mary Catholic Church parishioners were targeted by an email scam last week that has been targeting different church communities across the United States and Canada beginning last spring. Scammers send an email pretending to be the priest or pastor, asking the recipient to buy iTunes gift cards for someone in the hospital or going through cancer treatment and to send a screenshot of the pin number through email. 

Manchester residents Pete and Jennifer Nashif, received an email last Monday from an email address that was St. Mary’s priest, Fr. Bosco’s title and full name at gmail.com requesting help with something.

Jennifer Nashif stated, “Because we live across the street from church and Pete is on various councils, it’s not unusual for Fr. Bosco to call with a request for some help. I felt bad that I wasn’t seeing this email until today! I forwarded it to Pete who emailed Fr. Bosco right away and asked how he could help.”

After a couple of exchanges, the Nashifs became increasingly suspicious, and then they received the message, “There are 7 of the women but I’m thinking of $300 worth of iTunes gift card only for 3 for now, ($100 denomination each. That’s 3 cards of $100 each). I want the cards today. I only need you to scratch the cards, then take a SNAP SHOT of the back each showing the PIN and have them sent to me here so I’ll just forward to them easily. Can you do that for me right now?”

Jennifer Nashif stated, “We immediately became suspicious because the grammar does not sound like our erudite priest … Of course, the part about taking a SNAP SHOT of the pins was a big red flag.”

She called and left a message for Fr. Bosco right away and then saw that the church secretary had already sent out a warning email to everyone. 

Scams involving iTunes gift cards have become so common that Apple, the company that issues iTunes gift cards, has a section of their website dealing with iTunes gift card scams. They request that victims of these scams and attempted scams report it to the Federal Trade Commission through the form at https://ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ and to their local police.

Jennifer Nashif stated, “It’s truly despicable to try to rob people at Christmas time by impersonating a priest trying to help cancer patients.”

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.