Catholic Charities USA Warns Against Fraudulent Email

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Joliet is a member of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), a national organization representing hundreds of Catholic Charities agencies throughout the United States. As such, we thought you might like to be informed about recent fraudulent emails that are circulating regarding CCUSA. These emails are misappropriating the name of Catholic Charities USA and its affiliates are being sent to extract money and/or personal information from unsuspecting recipients and are circulating on the Internet.

Catholic Charities USA released the following information:

There are numerous variations of these emails, which are labeled with any one of the following subject titles: GRANT NOTIFICATION; THE CATHOLIC CHARITY; THE CATHOLIC CHARITY FOUNDATION; FROM THE OFFICE OF THE CASH GRANT PROGRAM; Donations for Hurricane Gustav Recovery Efforts.

These emails each list different contact persons and contact information (including email addresses) so that recipients of the emails may respond to purportedly collect funds after the recipient provides detailed personal information and/or is asked to travel to receive such funds. In addition, in at least one instance, the Web site of Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida has been misappropriated in the actual fraudulent email.

In order to combat and prevent the continued distribution of these emails, Catholic Charities USA issued a warning to each and every email address listed on these communications and is fully prepared to pursue legal action if the transmission of these fraudulent emails does not cease immediately.