Last Monday I began hearing from Goshen people who’d received an email claiming to be from me. The subject line said, “Peace Unto You.” Recipients were asked to email back promptly because “I need a favor.” It ended with, “God Bless, Peter Nelson, Pastor.”
Trouble is, this email did not come from me. It seems that someone “out there” had hacked into some email message containing several GBC people’s addresses. They’d also looked up our church online, found my name, and used it to try to draw people in.
If anyone replied, a response was sent: I was in a meeting, couldn’t talk, but I wanted to send gift cards to the staff of a charity. It went on: I’d tried to buy gift cards valued at $2,000 but my credit card was maxed out—so I needed you to step up quickly and bail me out and buy the digital gift cards (“I” promised to reimburse you!).
“Phishing” is the malicious attempt to persuade people to divulge personal info (like your SSN) or send money (thinking you’re sending it to a trusted person). Of course, it’s all a scam to rip you off.
We could talk about what to look out for in our scam-laden times. One red flag in this case was the email address—it didn’t include the goshenbaptist.org domain. We could also focus on making sure people we know who aren’t very tech-savvy (or scam-savvy) know what to do with unexpected requests coming by email or phone.
But instead, let us pray. Pray for the sad situation of this person who’s snatching email addresses and preying on the innocent. Somewhere (maybe here in PA, or maybe far away) there’s a soul—a man or woman made in the image of God, made to trust the Lord for mercy and hope and life—who’s gone down a dark path: the way of greed, cruelty, theft. Pray for that soul. It could be a calloused, lazy person who doesn’t want to get a “real job.” Or it could be someone being pressured to do this dirty deed—being blackmailed, or trafficked. We don’t know their story. But we do know this: Jesus taught us to love our enemies (Luke 6:27), and a great way to do that is to pray: ask God to grab this person’s attention, awaken their heart to the glory of Jesus, and lead them into repentant, saving faith!
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