You may have received an email that appeared to be from the Rabbi asking you to reach out to him. These are emails where a nefarious character is trying to get money via gift cards from you by “spoofing” the Rabbi.
Below, you can find a detailed example of the kinds of emails you might receive. A *huge* red flag is when the email instructs you to only respond via email. Most importantly: Please know the Rabbi will *never* send out these kinds of emails. Thus, you should neverrespond. If you are unsure, please call the office and speak with Bob or Rabbi Dennis first!
Definition of Spoofing stolen from the Internet: In the context of information security, and especially network security, a spoofing attack is a situation in which a person or program successfully identifies as another by falsifying data, to gain an illegitimate advantage.
This is exactly what the scammers have been trying here. This is an example email that has been received recently:
As noted above, we will never send out emails of this nature. If you receive one, please ignore it. Even if you think it might be legitimate, please reach out to the office and do not respond to the email directly.
Hopefully, this keeps everyone from getting involved in one of these scams. If you have any further questions or concerns, please just call Bob in the office. He’ll be happy to go over it in more detail with you if needed.