Danish clergy falls victim to identity theft

“Good morning. Do you have a minute?” This is how an email that several ward council members and church employees recently received begins. The recipients are asked to buy four iTunes gift cards. In total, it is a sum of 2000 kroner, around 200 euros. The email concludes with the name of a familiar priest. Sometimes, even a photograph of the priest is attached to the email. However, it is not the cleric who sent the email. It is a criminal.

Erik Ladegaard is one of the clergymen who has been exposed to identity theft. He is a parish priest in Holstebro, in western Denmark. Ladegaard was made aware of the problem when a former ward council treasurer approached him with four gift cards she had purchased after receiving the mail that was apparently sent from him. “She came with the gift cards and told me that I could pay in myself. Only then did she discover that it was a fraud”, says Ladegaard to the Danish daily Kristeligt Dagblad.

Rude

In total, Ladegaard was approached by four persons who bought gift cards for him. In three cases, the unsuspecting ward councillors got the money back for the cards they had purchased. The fourth, however, was not so lucky. “He bought four gift cards, scratched the code on the cards and sent them back to the person who sent the email.” According to Ladegaard, the person lost around 200 euros. “When he went to the bank and asked if they could help him, they just said he should think better about it another time. I think that is a bit rude because it is pure fraud”, says Ladegaard.

Danish daily Kristeligt Dagblad has been in contact with three other priests who have experienced a similar scam. Like the Holstebro pastor, they are frustrated that the thieves exploit the trust between parish council members and pastors. They also draw attention to the fact that many of the ward council members are “digitally vulnerable” because they are older and may have a harder time figuring out that it is a scam. Several pastors point out that everyone who receives fake emails has their name and email addresses listed on the church’s website.

Meanwhile, Danish authorities have issued a warning. “At the moment, the scam is mainly aimed at employees or volunteers who have email addresses on a domain that ends up on ‘@km.dk’.” Those are email addresses that are associated with the Ministry of Church Affairs.

It is not clear why the perpetrators have chosen the Danish clergy as their target. “In general, one can say that criminals are looking for the places where it is easiest to score a win”, says Jesper Kracht. He is the director of the national police department for IT-related Economic Crimes.