Please Read New Notice on Email Scams from the Archdiocese

December 8, 2021

There have been reports from Priests, Parishes and Archdiocesan offices receiving emails and text messages purporting to be from Archbishop José Gomez. Please be aware that Archbishop Gomez will not contact parishes from a personal e-mail address or through text messages from a cell phone.

As a reminder, we need to be continually vigilant about e-mail messages and text message we receive, even if we recognize the sender’s name, since that sender’s account may have been compromised. The following points may be useful to you:

Sometimes the e-mails or texts contain demands for immediate action, threatening disconnection of e-mail service, loss of health insurance, or loss of access to other programs if you do not send money or reset your password. Seriously question any items that are requiring you to take immediate action.

Do not give out personal information, including Social Security Number (or even part of the Social Security Number), credit card numbers, checking account numbers, or birthdates.

These examples above may seem obvious; however, we have encountered every one of them. We need to be constantly vigilant so as to maintain the integrity and safety of our computer systems, and not fall prey to fraud.

This is also the opportunity to remind you to frequently change your passwords, and to make passwords long and strong. That means a password that is at least eight characters long; contains at least one capital letter; contains at least one lowercase letter; contains at least one number; and contains at least one special character (!@#$%, etc.).

If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk in the Applied Technology Department at 213-637-7699 or at:

helpdesk@la-archdiocese.org

Thank you.