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BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

Recently a church in the Baltimore-Washington Conference fell victim to a phone scam that produced a bill for $10,000.

'What would your reaction be if calls were all being placed from your church phone system to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Germany,' the church leaders asked, in a plea for other churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference to practice caution.

The church in question has multiple buildings on its site and uses a business-type phone system that has several lines and routes calls to several separate extensions.

Those who worked on site were pleased with the system because it was advanced enough to allow them to dial their extensions from a cell phone, punch in their passwords, and retrieve their messages. It also allowed them to forward calls to their homes and cell phones.

They trusted, they said, that all these technological options were carefully set up, used and protected.

But recently, church leaders reported, a person posing as a representative from the company that installed and maintains the church?s internal phone routing system, called the church secretary. The caller said that, with the rise in terrorism around the globe, the church should be very careful to use long passwords and change them often. Then the caller proceeded to offer to assess the security of the church?s password choices. In doing so, the secretary shared one of the mailbox passwords.

That call was on a Thursday. On the following Monday, the church received a call from AT&T, its primary long distance carrier. The call warned them that what appeared to be fraudulent activities had appeared on their phone lines over the weekend. Just through AT&T, there had been about $3,000 worth of calls to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Church leaders began to investigate and work on the problem. In the meantime, they got a phone bill, which included calls through AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, USBI, Strategic Global Comm, and other companies, for $9,666.54.

It didn?t take long for them to put two and two together. When the church leaders called the internal phone system provider they were told that we weren?t the first such victim.

The technician at the phone company reported that the scam was 'very, very simple.' Knowing the password allowed the caller free access to the world through that one phone line.

In addition to addressing this problem within their own church, the leaders are issuing a warning to other churches. 'Love your neighbor, trust God, but be wise,' they said. 'Don?t ever give out a password to anyone. No legitimate company will ever ask you for your password.'

From their experience, the church leaders also recommend making sure that passwords on mailboxes are at least six characters long, and to mix letters and numbers.

'Put in as simple (and yet secure) a phone system as you can,' they recommend. 'Call your internal phone system provider and ask for a security assessment.

In the long run, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and the other companies removed most of the charges from the church?s bill.

'I feel violated, angry, and frightened by this phone experience,' one church leader wrote. 'But these scary, and yes, evil acts bring even more clear to my eyes and heart the only viable, long term way of salvation ? the intentional sharing of the Good News of God?s mighty acts in Jesus Christ.'

'Can you hear us now,' the church asks. 'Trust God, but be wise.'