Communications Update, Part III - Gone Phishing...

From: Jason Seymour Minister <onlinechurchmail1961@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 6, 2025 8:34:55 AM

Subject: NEW DEVELOPMENT ON STAFF WELFARE

 

Denise received this email from "me" earlier today.  (It is not from me.  First clue: check the sender address...)

This is a phishing email, where someone pretends to be someone you know in order to get some information and/or money from you.  In this example, the person is asking to be emailed back.  Often, the email may look even more official than this one does; it may include graphics or logos, or it will link to an equally official-looking fake web site.  (I got one like this from a bank recently... only it was a bank where I didn't even have an account.  But it looked so real!  Had I put in my username and password, they would have been recorded by the imposters and they could now access my online banking.)

Congregations like ours are frequent targets for crooks because we create relationships of trust, and those relationships can be exploited.  We're not alone: Unitarian Universalists, Baptists, Episcopaleans, Catholics... phishing is everywhere!  And we at UUSGS have noticed it more recently.

And so it behooves us to be careful with our communications.  A few reminders...

• Our website and email newsletter are public-facing communications tools.  This means that anyone and everyone can access them.  We want this!  ....so that we can reach and invite new people, and so that we can speak with our collective voice.  However, we need to be extra-careful these days about what gets shared in public spaces.  For example, great care is taken to ensure that no personal contact information is included that could be used in phishing attacks.  (This doesn't make scams impossible here, but it does limit one source of information.)
• UUSGS staff will never ask you for money by email or by proxy.  Online giving is handled through reputable providers (Breeze, Tithely).
• If something seems suspicious, please call.  Verify it is real.  (We're always happy to hear from you anyway!)  Do not reply or click through to another site.

These are good guidelines for other communciation, too.  You may receive a suspicious email from a friend or relative.  Or you may be on a private email group that includes folks you don't know very well.  If something seems suspicious, it likely is!  

Thankfully, UU's are no stranger to doubt.  Doubt can be a useful tool on the spiritual path, helping us to expose deeper truths.  Consider the following reading by Michael A Schuler, updating Robert Weston's #650 in our hymnal, written before the digital age.  Today, I hear this reading anew:

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the servant of truth.

Question your convictions, for beliefs too tightly held strangle the mind and its natural wisdom.

Suspect all certitudes, for the world whirls on—nothing abides.

Yet in our inner rooms full of doubt, inquiry and suspicion, let a corner be reserved for trust.

For without trust there is no space for communities to gather or for friendships to be forged.

Indeed, this is the small corner where we connect—and reconnect—with each other.

Cherish your doubts, friends.  Especially those that arrive because of a suspicious email!  :-)