More than 250 members of St. Peter’s Church in West Penn Township received an email last week from whom they believed was their pastor.

The message asked them for their help by purchasing gift cards, and sending photos of the redemption codes.

It turned out to be a fake.

The emails weren’t sent by Pastor Josh Nemeth.

They were mailed by a scammer.

Luckily, no one took the bait, Nemeth said.

“I was out on visitations last Wednesday, and all of a sudden, a number was calling me that I didn’t recognize but knew was local and they left a message,” Nemeth said. “Then a second person called me and then a third.”

Nemeth retrieved the voicemails.

“They were saying, ‘We got this email, and we were following up to see if everything is OK and what is going on,’” Nemeth said.

The church secretary was also being bombarded with calls about the email, which began with a greeting, “Thank you again for your support, it truly means a lot.”

The message then asked for help in “purchasing either five Target or Apple gift cards, each loaded with $100, totaling $500.”

From there, it told recipients that “Nemeth” was attending meetings away from the church, and gave instructions on what to do.

“Remove each card from its packaging, scratch off the silver strip on the back to reveal the codes, take clear photos of the back of each card,” it read.

The message asked that photos, including pictures of purchase receipts, be forwarded to “Nemeth” at the address provided. It noted that parishioners would be reimbursed on the following day.

Nemeth and the church immediately began notifying recipients that it was a scam.

He posted about the email on the church’s Facebook page, noting that “the email came from an account not associated nor owned by myself and the message is a scam. Please feel free to report the email address and delete it immediately. I am deeply saddened by this occurrence and apologize to you all for being in the middle of it.”

Shortly after the scam was sent, Nemeth was able to deduce how it happened.

“On Monday or Tuesday (before the scam), I received an email from our music director — from an address that appeared to be under her name,” Nemeth said.

The message asked Nemeth to copy her with the church’s membership directory.

“Being the new guy around, and not understanding who has the information and all that, I sent it. It sounded weird but I thought, maybe she needs it to get in contact with people. We just updated a whole bunch of stuff,” explained Nemeth, who was hired by the church on Jan. 1.

On the Wednesday of the scam email, Nemeth was speaking with the director, who told him that she never uses email.

“I was like, ‘What did you just say?’ ” he recalled. “And then I knew where the database got leaked from.”

It turned out that the email from the “director” was a scam.

“As I said to my board — and my favorite joke right now is — in the words of pop star Taylor Swift: ‘It’s me. Hi, I’m the problem, it’s me,’ ” Nemeth said.

Nemeth is relieved that no one fell for the scam, which is becoming common.

The Federal Trade Commission is aware of scammers posing as clergy to steal worshippers’ money and advises:

• Talk to someone. Don’t trust the name on an email address or what the message says. Contact someone from your place of worship using a phone number you know is real, never one that’s in the scammer’s email. Ask if this is a real request.

• Know how scammers tell you to pay. A leader in your place of worship won’t ask you to buy gift cards and give them the numbers off the back, but a scammer will.

• Learn what to do if you already paid the scammer. Contact the company that issued the gift card. Tell them it was used in a scam and ask them to refund your money. The money you paid might be gone already, but it’s always worth asking if there’s a way to get it back.