Sydney Anglican Services has renewed warnings about a sophisticated email scam targeting church communities, with fraudsters impersonating church leaders to gain access to parish directories and contact members.

Nathan McQueen (above), the Head of IT for Sydney Anglican Services (SAS), says fake emails are sent by a scammer impersonating a member of the church leadership team.

They target staff or members of the church, claiming they have been unable to login to the church directory and asking for a copy to be sent to them directly.

If they do get access, the scammer then emails members of the church, asking them to purchase gift cards for a vulnerable member of the congregation.

“In the busyness of church life, it's easy to imagine how requests like this coming from a rector might be actioned by someone just trying to be helpful,” Mr McQueen says in a video in which he warns of the scam.

“So if you're a parish office holder in our diocese, please take the time to be aware of these scams and put in place measures and practices within your parish to avoid scamming of any kind.”

You can watch Mr McQueen's video here and further information has been uploaded to the SAS Parish Administration website and parishioners are being told that church leaders will never ask for gift cards via email.

Reports of these scams are being received from various denominations in other parts of Australia.