Catholic Church in Singapore warns of phishing scams over Pope Francis visit in September

SINGAPORE: The Catholic Church in Singapore on Monday (Apr 15) warned of phishing scams ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the country in September.

“We have received reports of individuals/groups attempting to phish/acquire personal information by misrepresenting themselves as being associated with the ticketing process for the papal mass,” said the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore in an advisory.

“We urge the public to remain vigilant and not to fall prey to these scams. Tickets for the papal mass, when available, will be free-of-charge.”

The archdiocese also advised members of the public not to share personal information with any other websites or individuals claiming to offer tickets or information about the papal visit.

The church added that the only legitimate sources for information related to Pope Francis’ visit to Singapore are its official websites:

Pope Francis, 87, will visit Singapore from Sep 11 to Sep 13 – the last leg of his Asia tour.

He will be in Indonesia from Sep 3 to 6, Papua New Guinea from Sep 6 to 9 and Timor-Leste from Sep 9 to 11.

The last time a pope visited Singapore was in 1986 when John Paul II made a five-hour stop as part of his Asia-Pacific tour that included Bangladesh, New Zealand and Australia.

Thousands attended a papal mass at the National Stadium during that visit.

Apart from official engagements, Pope Francis is expected to be at a Eucharistic celebration, “likely” on Sep 12, said the archdiocese, adding that more information regarding his visit will be “released progressively in due course”.

This will be the longest trip for the Argentine, involving more than 30 hours of flight as well as a series of meetings and masses, since he became head of the worldwide Catholic Church in 2013.

Pope Francis had been due to visit Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Indonesia in September 2020 but the trip was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.