Recently, we were notified that a spammer emailed church members using Pastor Nanette’s name with a fake email address. The email asked for help and a reply. Today, parishioners are reporting receiving a similar text message sent from a different number than her cell number, again claiming to be from her and requesting help.

If you receive these fraudulent emails or text messages from any First Church pastor or staff member, please do not respond or click on any links — just mark as spam and/or delete immediately.

Please know that messages from First Church pastors and staff members will only come from our “akronfcc.org” email addresses, the church or cell numbers in our directory, and from our usual Mailchimp service. Never from a gmail, yahoo, or other outside email provider or any strange cell numbers. Please note that this spoofing (impersonation) is different from hacking and that your personal information, held by or shared with the church, has not been compromised, nor have any of the church’s systems been hacked.

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to prevent the impersonation or spoofing because it occurs outside of the systems within our control. Spoofing is affecting many churches — here’s an article from the Federal Trade Commission warning religious communities about similar occurrences and letting you know how you can report it.

If you have any questions, please contact our church office.