Pastor's Midweek Message

November 12, 2025

Sisters and brothers,

It pains me to share that the scourge of online scams has come to our Bermuda Hundred family.

In case you didn’t see Tuesday night, on Tuesday afternoon a scammer pretending to be me texted a series of people, including at least eight BHUMC people that I know of. The scammer either asked for a text back saying I urgently needed a favor, or asked right out for gift cards for a woman with cancer in the hospital (those are the ones I know of).

I’m so glad that many of you spotted the inconsistencies and had enough of your alarm bells going off about the messages you received. They came from a wrong phone number for me; I purportedly introduced myself as “Rev. Eric Kleppinger,” and while the scammers had my “grace and peace” signoff, most of you could tell the tone of the message wasn’t me.

The sad reality is that this happens regularly to churches. Pastors are frequently spoofed (that is to say, the scammer mimics being a pastor). It happens in other UMC churches, it happens in other denominations: scammers don’t care, they just want your money.

So let me be perfectly clear:

·  If you EVER receive a message that looks wrong in ANY way, PLEASE call the church office, or call me directly, to verify.

·  I will NEVER ask you to buy gift cards and send me the cards’ details electronically.

·  If we do collect gift cards, such as we are doing for CCHASM, it will only be in person, at the church, where you can hand them in to someone you know.

·  I will NEVER handle money personally or privately.  Any donations are to the church, not to me, and the church needs to receive them, not me. 

·  I will ALWAYS get back with you if you want to call and check on the validity of a request. Even if I’m with someone, or in a meeting, I can always check voicemail and call you back when it’s convenient.

When I learned of this scam effort at quarter past 4pm Tuesday, I immediately began drafting an email alert that went out right away. You have my commitment that I will always take your safety and security seriously, and that includes the safety of our information, so I will be working with Sharon to determine if there are any steps we can take to make it harder for scammers to come after us again.

Unfortunately, scammers prey on people who are generous, giving, loving, and want to make a positive difference—and that’s us. And the sad truth is, because we’ve been the object of one scammer’s efforts, it’s likely that we’ll be the object of many more of these, going forward. So please be vigilant, please watch out for messages that just seem wrong, and PLEASE check with me or the church office if there’s any doubt about any request in my or the church’s name. We can’t let the forces of darkness cloud our loving nature, we have to remain watchful and press on to being the church God is calling us to be.

So let’s go.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric