Bad actors tend to exploit real-world events, and with Pope Francis's death, could we see vulnerable mourners being exploited for financial gain?
Pope Francis dead
Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic church and sovereign of Vatican City for roughly 12 years until his death on Easter Monday, 2025.
For many, Pope Francis was a freedom fighter and was seen by many as a symbol of change.
Followers of the Catholic faith, and even those who don’t necessarily subscribe to the religion, were devastated to hear of his passing.
Increased reliance on technology
While the statistics are unclear, more people could be looking to mourn his passing through prayer, and with new technologies underway, apps could be the best place for them.
However, where there are apps, there are bad actors willing to prey on the vulnerable during this grieving period.
Cybernews decided to download four of the top prayer apps and ask experts how users could be exploited.
Hallow: #1 Catholic app
This app, like many prayer apps, is an interactive way to pray.
Roughly 920 million prayers have been prayed using Hallow, and the live prayer statistics show you that you’re not alone.
The app works more as a mindfulness app, like Headspace, where users can pick between different speakers who read out the Lord's prayer.
Users can set intentions when praying, set up routines, or read passages from the Bible.
Hallow describes itself as the number one Catholic app in the world, boasting tens of millions of downloads.
The app states that users have prayed hundreds of millions of times across 150 countries while using Hallow.
Echo: basic free prayer app
This app is a bit more fluid, in the sense that you type your prayers in and (I guess) the intention is set and the prayer goes where it needs to go.
Echo is a very basic app, but it does offer guided prayers based on your concerns. Users can create their own prayer groups on Echo and look through feeds, much like you would on a social media app. You can even keep track of your prayers and mark which prayers have been answered.
The number of times Echo has been downloaded isn’t publicly available. However, it describes itself as a top free prayer app.
Pray by Pray.com
The app Pray, created by social impact company Pray.com, describes itself as the number one app for faith and prayer.
“Pray is the only religious app in history to become a Top 5 grossing Lifestyle app in the Apple App Store,” the website reads.
The app offers faith-based audio content and allows you to pray through guided prayers. Users can even listen to bedtime bible stories and are encouraged to engage in daily prayer.
PrayerMate: your friend in prayer
PrayerMate offers users a list of things to pray for, whether that be saying The Lord’s Prayer, reciting a passage from the bible, or scripture that will help you to grow spiritually.
All you need to do is swipe to pray. This app was the least engaging, as the dull background and fewer interactive features made the praying process a bit dull.
But nonetheless, you’re doing the Lord’s work.
Spiritual scammers exploit mourners
As said before, scammers will manipulate real-world events like the death of Pope Francis to steal your personal information or exploit you financially.
Cybernews spoke to technology experts about how scammers could exploit you during this time of grief.
Ken Jon Miyachi, CEO and co-founder of software solutions company Bitmind, told Cybernews that scams come in many different flavours.
However, “urgent sob stories, requests for gift cards or crypto, and poor grammar are often good indicators.”
In this context, scammers could ask you to send donations to support those in need following Pope Francis’ death. They may ask for gift cards or urge you to unknowingly invest in cryptocurrency schemes.
Similarly, Roy Zur from the scam prevention company CharmSecurity told Cybernews that users should watch out for “requests for immediate payments, especially via unconventional methods.” This could be via wire transfers or via cryptocurrency.
Be careful sharing your intentions, says cyber pro
Openly sharing your intentions, whether that be religious or not, via apps can leave you vulnerable in many ways.
Kevin Sullivan, Principal Technology Consultant at XTIUM, told Cybernews that “users should be cautious of requests for personal information or invitations to connect from individuals they don’t know personally outside the app.”
These app-based prayer group environments are where people often share their intentions for themselves and others, Sullivan elaborated.
This could cause the unintentional disclosure of sensitive information. Sullivan provided an example for Cybernews:
“Please offer up prayers for my mom, Shirley. She just turned 85 last week and is dealing with some health issues.”
“This may seem harmless. But from that one sentence, you’ve revealed her name, approximate birthdate (April 1940), health status, and the fact that you’re closely related. That’s more than enough detail for someone with bad intentions to begin building a profile.”
Protect your privacy and personal data
Bad actors are in it for the money, but they might not necessarily start from that angle. Instead, they might use your personally identifiable information for fraudulent purposes.
Rocky Cole, Co-Founder and COO at iVerify, told Cybernews, “There are several things to be wary of if you find yourself being approached through prayer and religious apps.” These include “weird asks for personal data or the purchase of gift cards.”
Furthermore, when downloading prayer apps from app stores, there are a few things to be aware of, so users don’t end up downloading malicious software.
These include “unclear developer information, excessive permissions requests, icons/logos that look similar to the real thing but with slight modifications, or if you’re receiving a lot of popups or ads that could redirect users to malicious websites or install malware if clicked,” Cole told Cybernews.
Be wary of fake donation pages
Cole told Cybernews that scams could be the least of our problems in the wake of Pope Francis’ death.
“It’s not just scams through apps that people should be wary of …scammers are likely to host fake donation pages claiming to benefit the Vatican or even deploy smishing (SMS phishing) campaigns to trick people into clicking on malicious links.”
Seeing as the pope will be lying in an open casket, threat actors could exploit followers by creating websites and urging users to “click here to see the Pope lying in state,” Cole told Cybernews.
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