Watch out for scams!

For several months now, some of our parishioners have been receiving fraudulent emails or even texts from someone claiming to be Fr. Jean-Philippe.

FR. JEAN-PHILIPPE WILL NEVER ASK YOU FOR MONEY OR GIFT CARDS. If you have questions about a message you received CALL THE PARISH OFFICE BEFORE TAKING ANY ACTION. If the office is closed, that's okay! No request will ever be so urgent that it can't wait until business hours.

In the email variation of this scam (the most recent version as of February 21, 2025) the sender's name appears in recipients' inboxes as things like "Rev. Jean-Philippe Lokpo," "Rev. Koudjo K. Lokpo," or "Koudjo K. Jean-Philippe Lokpo," among other variations. The sender's email address is most often an "@gmail.com" address that includes some variation of "reverend" or "church" and a string of numbers. The latest one came from "Rev. Koudjo K. Jean Philippe Lokpo" at "[email protected]​." Please note that Fr. Jean-Philippe will ONLY ever email you from his official Archdiocese of Chicago account, [email protected]. His name will appear in your inbox as "Koudjo K. Lokpo" -- no "Rev.," "Father," or "Jean-Philippe" unless you personally saved his email to your contacts using a name that includes those words. We have not heard of the scammers using Fr. Jose's name yet, but you should treat any email that claims to be from him but does not use his [email protected] email address as fraudulent, too.

Last October, this scam popped up in texts sent from various numbers (primarily 201.354.7251) claiming to be "Rev. Koudjo K. Jean-Philippe Lokpo" and asking parishioners to "return my text" because "I have a favor to ask." Unlike many scam messages, these DO include the recipient's name (e.g., "Hi, Bob please return my text when you get it, I have a favor to ask. God Bless, Rev. Koudjo K. Jean-Philippe Lokpo".)

If you do not have Fr. Jean-Philippe's number saved in your contacts, he will not be texting you. If you do have him listed as a contact and you receive a text from another number claiming to be him, IT IS NOT FROM HIM. If you do not regularly text with him and he needs to reach you, he will call you, most likely from one of our parish phones, meaning it will appear as either 847.864.1185 or 847.864.0333.

If the sender insists that you shouldn't call him for any reason ("I'm going into meeting," "I have to give a Mass," "I'm really busy," "I'm with a parishioner," "I can't talk right now"), be EXTREMELY skeptical. Please see "Tips to Spot This Scam" below for more information on what to look for in a suspicious message. (Basically, Fr. Jean-Philippe will NEVER ask you for money or gift cards or anything of the sort over text or email. Also, no real request of his will be so time-sensitive that you can't wait to talk with him on the phone.)

If you receive a scam message, take a picture of it and delete it either by clicking "Report" and reporting it as a phishing scam (after which the message will automatically be deleted) or by simply deleting the message. You can report the fraudulent message to the Federal Trade Commission in English at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov or in Spanish at https://reportefraude.ftc.gov. Additionally, you can email the Archdiocese of Chicago at ​[email protected] to help keep them aware of the situation.

More information about this scam at our parish and similar ones across the country can be found after the tips.

Tips to Spot This Scam:

1. Make sure any and all emails you receive from Fr. Jean-Philippe come from his official Archdiocese email address, [email protected]. Make sure any other emails you receive from parish staff come from email addresses that end in "@archchicago.org" or "@stjohn23evanston.org." You will not receive an email from parish staff that comes from an email address ending in "@gmail.com" or "@yahoo.com."
2. Make sure any and all texts you receive from Fr. Jean-Philippe come from his cell number. If you do not have Fr. Jean-Philippe's cell number saved as a contact and you do not already text with him on a regular basis, HE WILL NOT TEXT YOU. If he needs you, he will call you (most likely from a parish number), and you will hear his voice. If you do have him saved as a contact and you receive a text from a different number claiming to be him, IT IS NOT HIM.
3. Be suspicious of any message that implies that you should only contact the sender by responding to that email or text message. Be suspicious of any message that indicates that you should not call the sender or talk to them face-to-face about the request or contents of the message.
4. Be suspicious of any message that asks you for help or to do the sender a favor.
5. Fr. Jean-Philippe or any other parish employee or representative will NEVER ask you to buy gift cards and send us the information on the back. Not for presents for the staff, help for a needy family, or donations for migrants. Never.
6. We also do not raise money of any kind through personal emails or text messages. We do not ask for gift cards in personal messages like these. We do not ask for cash donations in personal messages like these. When we ask for donations, it will always be through a broader appeal to the parish and/or community or through an official appeal from the Archdiocese. Requests for gift card donations are extremely rare (Giving Trees and requests from certain immigrant ministries are the only situations that come to mind), and these requests will NEVER come from Fr. Jean-Philippe or another parish staff member in a personal message or outside of a broader appeal. 
7. We will NEVER ask you to send us your bank information, personal passwords, account information, gift card information, payment information (like debit or credit card numbers) or anything like that through an email or text message. We will NEVER conduct any financial transaction purely over email or text. 
   1. NOTE: This scam is different than Pushpay. If you receive an email from Pushpay, you will be asked to click on a link that will take you to our parish's Pushpay portal, where you can set up your account, create a gift, and enter your financial information. That is different than being asked to send your bank information or conduct a financial transaction in an email reply or by filling out something like a Google Form.
8. Be suspicious of any unsolicited email that is personally sent to you (as opposed to an email blast, like the News Now emails or digital bulletins) but does not greet you by name.
9. Not sure if a message you received might be part of this scam? Before you do anything, give the parish office a call at 847.864.1185. We will be happy to help clear things up! If you receive the message when the parish office is closed, DO NOT do reply or send money until you have the chance to talk to us, even if that means waiting until the next day or until Monday. A lot of these scammers pressure you to act immediately; they want you to act before you have the chance to think. If it's a real email from Fr. Jean-Philippe or another parish staff member, we promise it can wait until business hours!

Generally, experts warn people to be wary of unsolicited email appeals for financial donations, to treat email attachments with caution, and to be careful about clicking on links in email messages. They say that if you click on a wrong link or realize that you have provided a password, username, or other personal information in response to a scam, you need to change your password immediately and alert the business's, bank's, or organization's IT department of the breach. For more general (but still very helpful!) information on how to spot and avoid scam emails, texts, and phone calls, check out the FTC's How to Avoid a Scam.

About This Scam
The messages usually begin with a simple greeting like, "Hi" or "Good morning," but often without the recipient's name. They typically ask for a quick response, often give some reason that the "priest" can't answer phone calls right now, and may include requests for to "do me a favor" or to provide help of some kind for a worthy cause, be that purchasing gift cards or wiring money to help the priest himself, a needy parishioner or family, or for gifts for the parish staff. Many times, the specific request to send money or buy gift cards won't come until after the recipient replies to the first email or even the first few emails. The sender may even promise that he (the "priest") or the parish will pay the recipient back for the cost of any gift cards.

We are not alone in this -- parishes around the country have been targeted with similar scams since at least 2018. In some dioceses, scammers have even impersonated bishops! In a 2020 interview with the Catholic Standard, Fr. Daniel Carson, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Washington, described the scheme: "Father Carson said these kinds of email scams, where people impersonate the pastor or a Church leader occur periodically, and typically involve the scammer sending an email posing as the priest and saying they need help and asking that person to respond back. If the person responds to the bogus email, that sender might ask them to do something like purchase gift cards and send them the number [on the back of the card]. [The appeals are sometimes also for cash donations or money transfers.] The language in such bogus email appeals constantly changes, but the sender often uses a phony Gmail or Yahoo account with the priest’s name incorporated in it." If you want to see what the full scam can look like in action, read this report based on messages received by an employee of the Archdiocese of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Unfortunately, neither we here at St. John XXIII nor the folks at the Archdiocese can do anything to stop fraudulent text messages or emails that come from outside of the "@archchicago.org" domain, like these scam emails sent from "@gmail.com" or "@yahoo.com" addresses. Once again, if you receive a scam message, take a picture of it and delete it either by clicking "Report" and reporting it as a phishing scam (after which the message will automatically be deleted) or by simply deleting the message. You can report the fraudulent message to the Federal Trade Commission in English at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov or in Spanish at https://reportefraude.ftc.gov. Additionally, you can email the parish at [email protected] and the Archdiocese of Chicago at ​[email protected] to help keep us aware of the situation.