We have been alerted that several parishioners have received an email from someone posing as our pastor, Fr. John Putnam, requesting the purchase of gift cards to be given directly to someone else.  If you receive one of these requests, please delete it immediately.   This is a scam. Unfortunately, it is one of numerous email and phone scams that request monetary help, supposedly for a trusted friend or family member.  
 
Pastors at other parishes in the area have also been the victims of cyber impersonation. The criminals personalize messages and target people from lists.  Replying to these messages is dangerous and not recommended.
 
When you open an email message and look at what is being presented to you, you should immediately get a feeling for the legitimacy of the message. Look at the name of the sender. Do you know the sender? You might know the sender but something still does not seem right about the message. Key things to notice are: word misspellings, poor use of grammar, bad punctuation, call to action. Just delete these kind of messages. If anything about a message raises your suspicion, you are better off without that message in your mailbox, so just delete it. If you are not comfortable deleting a message because you know the sender, call the sender and investigate if their message is legitimate. 

 
To verify the legitimacy of a request from any of our parish clergy, you may call the Parish Office at 704-948-0231.