Beware scam emails!

Dear all

I have been made aware in the last few days that several people have received fraudulent emails purporting to be from me. These emails ask people to reply, and then request help with purchasing large numbers of gift vouchers, supposedly as gifts from me to volunteers in the parish.

These emails are not from me. They are a scam, designed to steal money. Do not reply to them. I will never ask for money to be sent to me personally. I will never ask for any form of gift voucher.

If you receive an email that claims to be from me but it seems “off” to you, please phone me (07440 338056) to let me know about it.

Please also note that I will only ever email you from my official email address: rector@spauls.co.uk or, in the case of newsletters like this one, from stpaulswebsite@spauls.org.uk. If the email is not from one of those two addresses, it is not from me. You can normally tell what the address is by looking in the “From” field of the email.

If you have received one of these emails, do not respond to it. These emails are crimes, and you can report them to Action Fraud: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing

If you would like support or advice on this, or if you have any questions about it, do please get in touch with me. If the scammers have succeeded in deceiving you, you might well feel embarrassed about it: please do report it so that others can be protected from it. If you would like any help with this, I would be very glad to do so.

Many thanks to the people who have passed on their concerns about these messages to me. I am very grateful to them.

With all best wishes and prayers,
Fr Sam