Pastor says someone tried to trick church leaders with Coronavirus Scam

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    NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV ) — “Even though I’m a pastor, I still get infuriated with things,” Pastor J.T. McCraw said.

Speaking the truth about a potential scam experience, Pastor J.T. McCraw from Bethel World Outreach in Brentwood says he’s sad and pretty frustrated.

“I mean, we are human you know,” McCraw said. He wants to spread the news about a fraudster taking advantage of the Coronavirus and the Church’s good deeds to steal information.

“Yesterday, our senior pastor received a text saying that there was going to be a call at 3:30 with the Governor’s office and that call would cover stimulus package for churches that needed to pay their bills. And what the churches, what they should do or how they should respond to COVID-19,” McCraw said.

Before McCraw could even get onto the call, another Pastor informed him that the caller sounded questionable.

“Then I heard afterward that the call was kind of chaotic. And they were asking for people to give them their email addresses so that they could forward them information for another call today,” McCraw said.

News 4 called the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington D.C. to them about the issue and to ask for information about scammers using the coronavirus as a means to ask for information about scammers using the coronavirus as a means to trick Americans.

“Scammers are out there and they’re trying to separate you from your money.”Associate Director of Division of Consumer & Business Education with the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC says remember, the government will never ask you to pay anything upfront or for your social security or bank account information. Also, stay on top of what’s happening in congress.

“These are still reports of ochecks, they’re not checks yet. There’s no money yet. And you’ll need to watch the news to figure out when things are actually happening. That anybody that says they can get you money now…is simply lying to you,” Jennifer Leach said.

Pastor McCraw just hopes others hear his experience and know to never let your guard down, especially right now.

“My pastor friend, he just made a simple call to the governor’s office and said, hey is this legit…and the answer was no! So, just learn that during these times there are people that are going to try and do things like this. So you just have to be overly cautious,” Pastor McCraw said.

The FTC says if you are a victim of a scam from the coronavirus, contact them at ftc.gov/complaint.

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