Phishing email

I got an email today from what looks a lot like other emails from the church. This one seemed odd because it wanted to do a survey. I am always leery about clicking on links to emails and so I asked my husband if he thought it was legitimately from the church. He didn’t think so. I was trying to find an email to forward it to someone so they could look into it, but I couldn’t find any official church email. Anyone know if there is anything that I should do about this? I feel like other people will click on it because they trust the church, so I want to try to prevent that from happening, if possible. Thanks for any help.

At times, the Church has used external vendors to do surveys of experiences with sending feedback to the website. If you had recently submitted feedback or used that mechanism to ask a question, it might be a legitimate survey. Also, I seem to recall having heard that the Church occasionally does more general surveys.

The 'Feedback' link or button on the main Church website would be the most reliable way to find out whether the email message you received is legitimate--and, if not, whether/how/where to report it for possible investigation. However, after using the 'Feedback' link, you might get a message asking you to fill out a survey about the experience.

There are a couple of other threads about surveys that may help you determine whether it it legitimate: https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22684, https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=31145

Handbook 2 Section 21.1.35 includes phone numbers you can call to definitely determine whether the survey is authorized.

Thanks for your replys. They are helpful. My email didn’t say anything about the handbook but there are some similarities. I will likely call the number to verify it. For info sake this is what it said...

“Under the direction of Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, the Correlation Research Division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints periodically conducts research. You have been selected to participate in an internet-based survey.

This survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. If possible, please complete this survey within the next few days. To begin, click on the internet link below:

Take the Survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser: https://lds.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/ {details removed}

Thank you for your willingness to help with this important research.


Sincerely,


Church Headquarters
Correlation Research Division
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Research@ChurchofJesusChrist.org”

It looks legitimate to me, but it doesn't hurt to verify.

That is a legitimate email.

I received an email this morning from an address in Germany, indicating that my "Aid Donation" could not be processed unless I downloaded a form to fill out. The email addressed me by "Brother and my last name". I work in the data security industry, and this has spear phishing written all over it, the church does not have staff in Germany asking about donations. It looks like someone may have hacked a database of names so the emails look legit, I hope no one is responding to these, BEWARE!!

Assuming you live in Europe, The Church European HQ is based in Germany. If you are living in the UK are you attempting to use the Gift Aid donation system? The Gift Aid team are based in Germany and unless you have filled in any forms to use the Gift Aid system, this is what they would appear to be asking for!

No, i do not live in the UK or Europe, I live in the US, and have never used the "gift aid" app, I would suggest this is cause for concern...

I received an email through the church maps feature from someone named Susan McClary in Africa whose husband supposedly died and was leaving $3.8 million to a charity. She (?), a few months later, finds herself on her deathbed and wanted me to handle the distribution. I asked for more details and received no further information. Be on the look-out.

I also received this email. Looks like it is a phishing mail.

Also received the Susan McCarry email. definitely a phishing email.

Susan McCleary just contacted me through MAPS as well. Is there a way to report this to Church HQ?

toddwilliambermann wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2023 3:23 am Susan McCleary just contacted me through MAPS as well. Is there a way to report this to Church HQ?

Only way I can think of is call the main number and ask for the fraud department.

Got the email through MAPS>>from africa, 3,8kUSD (from UK) etc. blocked

I just got a message through the maps from Susan McClary asking if my email was valid to reach me. Seems like the same thing. I'm not going to respond.

ronsunyoung wrote: Fri May 03, 2024 7:24 am I just got a message through the maps from Susan McClary asking if my email was valid to reach me. Seems like the same thing. I'm not going to respond.

There's another Forum thread where a different member posted that they also just recently received the "Susan McClary" email. I'd encourage you to notify the Church, my feeling is that they are actively interested in blocking this type of abuse (to the degree possible, of course) of the messaging tool. See this Forum post for some helpful details.

I received the same.email from a Susan McClary in map services.