Aloha Church,

We’ve been informed that two individuals within our church ‘ohana were recently scammed through email and have consequently lost financial resources.

It has become common for scammers to pose as pastors in attempts to take advantage of unsuspecting, generous church members by contacting them through email or even text message, asking for a favor.

These email scams are not new and we’ve shared about them before, but we want to remind you again so you can avoid being scammed.

A few signs that an email is likely a scam:

  • Sender’s email address is wrong (though correct name appears)
  • Sender claims to be busy/in a meeting, tells you not to call them
  • Sender asks for help purchasing a gift card
  • Sender asks for personal information
  • Sender makes request with little background or reason

If you receive any vague message, especially something out of the ordinary that appears to be from one of our pastors, check the sender’s email address. If it does NOT match our pastors’ email addresses, it is likely a scam, no matter how convincing it seems. Delete the message and don’t respond!

If you are ever in doubt and questioning the legitimacy of a message or request that comes through email or text from someone claiming to be from the church, call the church office: 808-941-0957. Do not act on any strange email messages.

Our current pastors’ email addresses:

  • mary-herbig@centralunionchurch.org
  • david-smazik@centralunionchurch.org

*Official Central Union Church email addresses will end with @centralunionchurch.org.

(Please respond to messages from the above addresses!)

Cyber scams are very common. Anyone can be targeted and anyone can fall victim. It is an unfortunate downside of our technological world. We are so sorry that our church members have experienced this and we hope it won’t happen again.

Here are a few tips on How To Avoid a Scam