Fraudsters pose as clergy, ministers in impostor scams

According to news accounts, Catholic parishes in Ohio have been targeted, along with synagogues in Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina and Tennessee. In Delray Beach, Florida, an

80-year-old woman bought $10,500 in gift cards for a man she thought was her pastor. In Madison, Wisconsin, a 78-year-old man purchased $900 in cards for someone he was led to believe was

his pastor. 'DIRTY TRICK' In 2019, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned that churches throughout the state had been hit by “a dirty trick” targeting people of faith. He said

the scammers were believed to be using information taken from church websites and online bulletins. Others, though, suspect that clergy email accounts have been hacked and had their contacts

stolen. The FTC also issued a nationwide alert in 2019 about scammers pretending to be pastors, rabbis, priests, bishops and imams. The FTC's Colleen Tressler, who wrote the alert,

told AARP recently that her own Episcopal church is the target of clergy scams “at least a half-dozen times a year.” The church regularly collects gift cards at Thanksgiving, Christmas and

Easter to be placed in food baskets for the needy, Tressler says, so it may not seem out of the ordinary that a church leader is soliciting cards. PREYING, NOT PRAYING AARP's Amy

Nofziger, who oversees its free, toll-free Fraud Watch Network Helpline (877-908-3360), says there's been an uptick in clergy scams during the pandemic as millions of people worship

remotely. “We see and hear these horrible stories about people not having food on their table or seeing loved ones sick,” she adds, “and our love for our community and church compels us to

help.” Nofziger says complaints about clergy scams used to trickle in to the Helpline once or twice monthly; since the global health crisis, there have been five or six reports weekly. A

Hawaiian man in his 70s called the Helpline in February to report that he lost $500 in Apple cards to a man pretending to be a Buddhist bishop. The victim realized it was a hoax only when

the scammer asked for $500 more, this time in eBay cards. “I was just angry at myself for just being so gullible,” says the victim, who asked not to be identified. Elliott Greenblott, 73,

coordinator of AARP Vermont Fraud Watch, has been delivering Zoom presentations on staying safe from these scams to synagogues in New England — including Aronson's — to eliminate what

Greenblott calls affinity fraud. Such frauds see people exploit the trust and friendship within a group — whether a religious, professional, ethnic or other sort of alliance — to rip people

off. Aronson says he may ask Greenblott back. Grateful for the insights, the rabbi remains pained that people are preying on others rather than praying for others. “Unfortunately, we live in

a world where unscrupulous people will do anything to make a buck, even if means hurting others,” he says. “And we just have to be very, very careful."