Scammers impersonate church ministers to exploit congregations across Australia

Scammers are impersonating church ministers, hoping to prey on the charity of vulnerable members of congregations in a scam that has been spreading across the country for a number of years.

Sharyn Reisener is one of three volunteers helping to monitor her Townsville church's email inbox.

Earlier this month, Ms Reisener opened an email that appeared to be from her church's minister, announcing he had changed his email address.

Her minister's email address follows a standard format of [email protected].

The new address included just a minor change to the format [email protected].

"Office, can I please have a pdf version of our church directory?" a follow-up email from the new address asked.

It put Ms Reisener on edge.

"That rang even more alarm bells because I knew he wouldn't call me 'Office', he would call me by name," she said.

"I thought, 'That's not quite right.'"

She called the minister, who was surprised and concerned, and said he did not know anything about 'his' new email address.

As the confusion cleared, Ms Reisener realised she had been the target of a scam.

Sydney diocese issues warning

Sydney Anglican Services head of IT Nathan McQueen outlined the likely next steps of the attempted scam in a recent video, which was shared among the Sydney Diocese.

The diocese decided it had seen the scam attempted enough times to warrant issuing a video warning to church leaders and members.

Mr McQueen said scammers were impersonating church leaders, whose names are typically publicly available online, to gain access to a church's directory.

"If they do get access, the scammer then emails members of the congregation pretending to be the rector, asking them to purchase gift cards for a vulnerable member of the congregation," he said.

The scammer then requests the victim send through the details of the card.

"In the busyness of church life, it's easy to imagine how a request like this coming from a rector might be actioned by someone just trying to be helpful," Mr McQueen said.

Fake pianos and altered invoices

The National Anti-Scam Centre, run by the ACCC, said this scam had been operating around the country since 2021, targeting churches in every state and territory.

"If victims do send gift card numbers, they are asked to purchase more," a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said another scam targeting churches included the office being sent fake invoices or council rates drafted to look authentic.

Another scam identified by the centre included churches receiving fake offers to donate a grand piano, requesting that the church pay 'shipping costs'.

"Before responding to requests for personal information, money or bank account details from someone claiming to be from your church or religious group confirm it is legitimate," the spokesperson said.

'Close to being violated'

When Ms Reisener heard of the widespread scam, she felt "sick".

"It feels close to being violated," she said, adding that scammers were exploiting the good relationship between a minister and their congregation.

"From a Christian background, people are often giving to others to help them.

"It's playing on people's emotions and natural responses."

Ms Reisener said churches had vulnerable people who might not be able to detect a scam.

"I come from a congregation of elderly people," she said.

"A lot of them aren't computer savvy. They would see it as a legitimate email and they wouldn't question it.

"It's potentially preying on vulnerable elderly people in a church environment.

"People need to be warned."