Pierce County church alerts public about data breach. Here’s what you can do

Graham Emmanuel Baptist Church is alerting the public about a data breach, a law firm for the church announced on Saturday.

Between May 15-17, someone accessed an internal database of the Graham, Washington, church and attempted to perpetrate an email scam by impersonating a GEBC employee. The goal of the scam was to try to obtain fraudulent donations, according to the church.

The church launched an investigation and discovered the following on Aug. 8: that certain personal information was contained in the exposed data, including first and last name, date of birth, and medical condition and/or food restriction to the extent it was provided to the church.

“The types of impacted information varied by individual,” a news release reads.

The church is now mailing those whose information was disclosed in the breach.

“The notice contains information about the incident, GEBC’s response, and information and resources to help individuals protect their information,” the release reads.

The church encourages the following:

▪ Call a toll-free phone number set up by the church at 888-401-0130. It is live 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

▪ Write the church at 22316 106th Ave., Graham, WA 98338.

▪ Report fraudulent activity to the Federal Trade Commission by going to the FTC website , calling 877-438-4338, or sending a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Response Center, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20580.

▪ Check the Graham Emmanuel Baptist Church website for more information about the data breach.

“Since this event, GEBC has taken measures to increase security across all of our networks,” church officials say in the release. “The confidentiality, privacy, and security of sensitive information in our care remains one of our highest priorities.”