Circular Letters to clerks

I just got an email from the following address: Europe-Official-Announcements (a) ldschurch.org. The title is 14658_130 and the body of the email says only: New Circular Letter Attached. It has an attachment which is a pdf-file with the name 14658_130.pdf. I am afraid to open it, since I have never before received any emails from this address and I haven't ever received any circular letters from the church. However, I checked the Official Communication Library and the latest letter there is item 14658 (and 130 is the code for my language). Is this a new thing that the official communication is send to ward clerks?

Checking in the Official Communications Library, that document 14658 has been distributed by the Church Education Service (CES) and is about a broadcast in February.

Normally PDF documents are safe. However clicking on a link within such document might not be, unless you are happy where the document originated from.

As a Ward Clerk myself, I haven't received such an email. Are you connected with Seminary, Institute, Missionaries etc? The broadcast is aimed at that area.

Biggles wrote:Are you connected with Seminary, Institute, Missionaries etc? The broadcast is aimed at that area.

No, I'm not. That is why I was so surprised about the email.
If they want to send these kinds of official communication to me, it is ok. However, I would have expected the body of the email to have some more information.

Guess What! Received, about 10 minutes ago with 3 notices attached, the email you were concerned about. Each covering slightly different areas.

For me the clue was @lds.org at the end of the senders address, as being a legitimate address.

Thinking about the original question you posed. I don't recall seeing this type of email for Ward Clerks (5+ years in calling) before, with that particular sender address. How ever, as an STS I regularly get Church notices, so am used to spotting a genuine communication from fake!

Biggles wrote:Normally PDF documents are safe.

I disagree. PDF can contain malicious java code.

I stand corrected!

Biggles wrote:For me the clue was @lds.org at the end of the senders address, as being a legitimate address.

Looking at the sender address is not a guarantee. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing.

Some email clients will warn you when they see a message that appears to be forged and there are some mechanisms in places to help reduce this, but I wouldn't blindly trust the sender address to determine whether an attachment is trusted.

Again I stand corrected!

Today I received a new circular letter to my inbox. It explained that official letters are send by email beginning March 21. It also listed people who are receiving communication. Clerks were not mentioned. So I'm still wondering whether I should be receiving these emails or not.

I suspect that if you have been receiving them as a clerk in the past, you will continue to receive them in the future. Past Letters and Notices were not addressed to clerks, either. But I may be wrong.