Catholic Church Bodies Warn Of Fraudsters Impersonating Priests To Solicit OTPs And Donations

Two apex religious bodies, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India have warned members about financial fraudsters impersonating senior church officials. 

The CBCI said that the scamsters ask members to use online links to join virtual meetings organised by the church. Father Robinson Rodrigues, public relations officer of CBCI, said that he received complaints from members about callers asking them to join the online meetings. “They were asked to click on the links and share a one-time password with the caller. Some of those who received the calls were suspicious as the accent of the callers sounded African,” said Rodrigues.

The organisation said there were no reports of people getting scammed. “They were cautious. We have not registered any complaint. However, we decided to issue a general warning,” said Rodrigues who added that in the past, there have cases of social media accounts and WhatsApp numbers of priests getting hacked and appeals made to church members for money. There have also been instances of fake social media profiles of priests created to appeal for donations to charitable causes.

In its message, CBCI urged the general public to exercise caution and not respond to such calls from unknown numbers. People have been asked to   verify its authenticity by directly contacting CBCI or CCBI officials through official channels. Members Ha been asked to avoid WhatsApp calls for verification, as they may be vulnerable to hacking.

India has around 23 million Roman Catholics who form a majority of the country’s Christian population.