Fraud Under the Guise of the Church: Russian Orthodox Church Updates List of False Priests

Priest Alexander Volkov of the Russian Orthodox Church warned about fraudsters who, under the guise of church organizations, deceive people through the Internet. Such announcements about helping temples and monasteries should be checked through official church websites and contact numbers.

At the end of January, the Russian Orthodox Church updated the online register of false priests, which includes individuals who continue to call themselves priests despite being defrocked. The list is available on the official website of the Synodal Department of the Russian Orthodox Church.

You should not take banners with requests for help that can be found on the Internet and Telegram channels as truth, even if they are forwarded by acquaintances. It is important to check the existence of the temple and the priest indicated in the advertisements. To do this, you need to find information about the temple on the diocese website, call the rector and check whether this advertisement really belongs to the temple. If in doubt, you can contact the diocese directly. The Moscow City Diocese has an electronic directory of temples, which indicates all full-time clergy.

It is important to evaluate the form of information presentation: it should be professional, not careless. In the context of the development of artificial intelligence, it has become more difficult to distinguish fakes, but checking the original source and the reliability of the source will help to avoid mistakes. If there are doubts, this should be a signal for caution.

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