Beware of Fraudulent Phone Calls

02 January 2020

Please be aware of the risk of the theft of money by criminals masquerading as the fraud department of a bank.

The practical advice is very simple - if anybody calls purporting to be the fraud department of a bank, terminate the call and call the bank's fraud department on a published number.

The background to this is that over the Christmas holiday two of our ministers have had sums of tens of thousands of pounds stolen by criminals who knew their name, the names of other CF contacts (from the same area) and the bank used by the minister. I understand there has been an unsuccessful attempt on a third minister.

This demonstrates that thieves have obtained personal details of persons connected with CF, and may have the details of others. Some of the details (not bank details) may have come from our website.

While we don't know at this point how this has happened, we have a clear responsibility to alert as many people as possible to the potential risks.

Can I ask that each of us cascade this message throughout their area/committee and ask for the same warning to be made known to as many as possible in our churches?

Let us pray for those who have been victims of these attacks, and for law enforcement agencies engaged in investigations. Let's also pray for the criminals themselves, that they might come to a position of repentance.

Let me also take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year.

Love and blessings

Jim Lyon
Chair of Council | Congregational Federation