The Judicial Police and ecclesiastical authorities are actively monitoring a new wave of computer fraud in Portugal, where networks of scammers clone the visual and pastoral identity of respected priests to extort money from faithful followers through social media and digital messaging applications. The scheme has already damaged several dozen believers in different dioceses across the country and consists of creating fake accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, using photographs and biographical descriptions taken from public profiles of parish priests. The criminals directly approach faithful followers, festival committee members, and regular benefactors, claiming serious emergencies such as urgent repairs to the main church, unforeseen healthcare expenses, or support for families in extreme hardship.
The mechanics of the scam rely on careful psychological manipulation and exploitation of religious devotion, with the scammers using solemn language full of blessings and terms habitually employed by parish priests. The contacts often begin as routine greetings, rapidly evolving into the presentation of urgent problems requiring absolute discretion. Victims report that the fake priests justified money requests with pretexts such as supporting families without an active bank account or claiming that the church factory's account was blocked for bureaucratic reasons. The amounts requested range between 150 and 2,500 euros per operation, and the money is immediately dispersed through multiple "money mule" accounts scattered across the country and abroad.
When the priests themselves who were targeted began to be approached personally by faithful followers who found the coldness of the digital requests strange, the alarm was raised in the dioceses. Several priests issued urgent warnings during Sunday masses and published statements denying the possession of secondary accounts. The vicarages and diocesan curias instructed parish priests to formally report any attempt at digital identity cloning to the authorities, whether to the National Republican Guard, Public Security Police stations, or directorates of the Judicial Police.
The specialized cybercrime combat brigades of the Judicial Police have been cross-referencing data from the beneficiary accounts of transfers, having already identified and charged several intermediaries. The penalties for qualified computer fraud, aggravated by the combination with computer falsification and appropriation of another person's identity, can reach eight years of effective imprisonment. Authorities appeal to the population to always confirm by telephone or in person any request for money received digitally, even when it appears to come from an ecclesiastical authority, and recommend immediate reporting to social media platforms for the deletion of fraudulent profiles.
