It has come to our attention this week that a scam email, impersonating our volunteer/s of the Shrine and requesting a donation, has been received by some of pilgrims. We are unsure how they got these details (though suspect that details are being found on social media), or indeed, how many emails were sent out. The emails are coming from a marianretreat@bigpond.com address, and using our name.
I would like to assure all pilgrims that no priest, staff member or volunteer will ever approach you via email for any donations or money.
In the event of someone falling victim to this scam, we will engage our IT Support team to gather as much information as possible. We will then formally advise the Archdiocese of any incident where fraudulent activity has taken place, as well as reporting these cases to the ReportCyber site of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (https://www.cyber.gov.au/report).
Any such instances should be forwarded to the Shrine Office at marianvalley@bigpond.com or verified by calling 07 5533 3617 during our office hours.
The email looked like the following:
