The Bishopric of Bilbao in Spain denounced a scam perpetrated against a community of nuns in which the scammer impersonated the bishop. The local Church alerted those responsible for consecrated life and cloistered life of the fact.
On May 23the bishopric reported that “it has been aware of a scam in a community of nuns”, without specifying what it was, in which “a person has called by phone impersonating the identity of the bishop by simulating his voice.”
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The statement states that the scammer told the nuns that he had “obtained an important donation for the community and has asked them to make a deposit in advance to pay the transfer costs.”
Given what happened, the general secretariat of the bishopric, headed by secretary Carlos Bargos, sent “a note to those responsible for consecrated life and cloistered life warning of the fact.”
In that communication it was specified that the Bishop of Bilbao, Bishop Joseba Segura Etxezarraga “has not called nor will he ever call to ask for money from religious communities.”
Likewise, the Bishopric of Bilbao has requested that “if you suspect any scam, you contact the bishopric.”
“In the event that any payment has been made, go to the competent authorities to file the corresponding complaint,” the text concludes.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.