Phishing update

Good morning,

I wanted to bring this phishing email to your attention and take this opportunity to review best practices, as several of you have already forwarded similar versions to me:

From: Lisa Alexander <Lisa.Alexander11@outlook.com>
Sent: Friday, May 1, 2026 8:14 AM
To:  <synod@bc.anglican.ca>
Subject: Email Update
Hello office, 
Kindly add my new mail Lisa.Alexander11@outlook.com to the church database and let me know once it has been updated. And also send me the current PDF copy of the church directory so I can have it saved in my draft.  
Regards
Lisa 

These emails work in a very simple way, as information such as name and title of who they wish to impersonate (often, a warden, treasurer, or incumbent) is readily available on parish websites. This one is quite harmless, as it does not contain any links or attachments which, if clicked, could download malware to the device.

When receiving an email that requests sensitive information, I always check the sender. Here, there are the other giveaways, such as the use of "office" - I know Lisa would use my name! If I had reason to believe that this may actually be Lisa, the next step would be to call or email her through a verified email. If you ever have any doubt, you can always forward the email to me, and I would be happy to look into it for you. 

As far as next steps, I will be blocking this sender so they can't try again and sending an email out to Synod office staff telling them to double-check the email address of any communications they may receive from Lisa in the coming days. 

Thank you to everyone for helping keep our diocese cyber-safe!

Diocesan Administrative Assistant
Phone:  250-386-7781, ext. 240