Man pretended to be an archbishop to defraud priests with a supposed charitable cause: this is how he was caught

On Monday, July 28, Florencio Roselló, Archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela, Spain, issued an alert to all priests and members of parish communities in the region after becoming aware of an attempted scam in his name.

According to the religious leader, an unidentified individual has accurately cloned his voice to make fraudulent calls requesting money or bank details to support a supposed charitable cause.

Meanwhile, some local media reported that parishes in this part of the country have been receiving suspicious communications in which someone urgently requests money transfers.

However, some reports indicate that this new type of scam is not new, as dioceses such as Madrid, Getafe, Mérida-Badajoz, Seville, Jaén, Mondoñedo, Ferrol, and Barbastro-Monzón have faced similar situations for some time.

In this regard, several religious leaders claim that the strategy is always the same, as the unknown person contacts a priest in the community, claiming to be the archbishop.

The scammer then uses specific details about the Church to make their story more credible, and once they gain the clergyman's trust, they invent a charitable cause to obtain personal information or get them to send money to an account.

According to the religious authorities, during the summer of 2024, the dioceses of Bilbao and Vitoria detected similar cases, but at that time they were unable to identify the person responsible.

Despite this, the priests gradually realized that the criminal had access to information about the Church, such as names, positions, and details of religious activities.

Additionally, local media reported that the phone number from which the calls are made uses an apparently official identification , which helps give the communication more credibility.

In response to this type of scam, the Archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela recommended that members of the Catholic community in the region verify the origin of requests, refrain from making any payments, and avoid providing sensitive information.

DIGITAL REACH EDITORIAL