This is something I learned over and over again during my two decades in broadcast journalism: As cynical as people claim to be, when someone needs help, they are likely to offer it.
And that's what hackers are counting on in this new scam in which your "pastor" emails asking if you can help.
Except, the email is from a hacker pretending to be a pastor.
We first saw news of this scam when SecureWorld speaker and contributor Dan Lohrmann put this up on LinkedIn:
It turns out that Lohrmann received one of these scam emails himself.
And he wrote up an intriguing firsthand account where he engaged the "pastor" who needed his help for a widow in the church.
This is part of a trend we're seeing: Scammers, hackers, and cybercriminals increasingly provide real-time support and interaction because it is good for business.
Read Dan Lohrmann's firsthand account of the pastor phishing scam and share this article with people of faith in your life so they know to watch out for this!