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From the Pastor’s Desk:

Be Alert:

Be alert is typically a theme not for this time of year, but at Advent.  During the Advent Season, we hear Scriptures that tell us to stay awake, be alert, be on guard for you never know when the Son of Man will come back.

I thought about this theme recently.  It had nothing to do with Advent, rather it relates to scams. I know that several people have gotten messages that were supposedly from me.  They were not.  They were scams trying to con people out of money.  I have tried to be somewhat diligent on my end with changing some passwords.  However, in talking with Jamie Baker (our Director of Technology), we think that the newsletter is being scanned for information and that produces the scam text and emails.

Because of this, we are going to begin to try to limit information within the newsletter.  Primarily, we are going to work at limiting the printing of people’s phone numbers within the newsletter.  This may cause some inconvenience for people as you will need to use our small directory to find a number or you can call the church office to get a number for a person. 

Even with some precautions that we are going to take, there still may be times when scam text, emails, messenger, other social media get sent.

Here are some things to remember for you to be alert to what might be a scam:
I almost never put my name in a text.  And if I do, it would be that I haven’t texted you before and then I will almost always begin with my name and not wait till the end.  
For emails, I almost always use my full name and many times do not sign my name at all in an email.
If for some reason I am going to ask you to consider giving for a specific reason or to help with a individual or family, I am almost always going to call you personally.  I would not ask you in a text or email.  And I would just call you and not send a message to ask you to call me or text me because of going into a meeting or being unavailable.
Also, there is a way to check what number the message is sent from.  These scams are coming from other numbers than mine.

If you think something might be off about a message you receive; call or text me personally rather than respond to the message that is sent.

There are ways to report spam calls to your provider, depending upon the type of phone you have.  It is helpful to do this if you receive one of these scam request.

While we may wish things like scams would not exists or that we would not get them, the reality is that no one is immunized from getting these request and at times we can even fall prey to them.  Thus, the theme of Advent comes into play.  BE ALERT!  BE ON WATCH!

We are trying to do what we can on our end to prevent them, but it is not always easy.  And we want everyone to be aware and have this information so that you can be alert to this potential scam.  Any questions, please reach out to me.