All sounds familiar.  Death in family.  Two daughters.  Visited on Thanksgiving in CA.  Mom killed by drunk driver.  Wanted money for bus fare.  Hung un when I refused to give money.

"John Thompson" called me this morning with a very similar story.  I will give many details, that it might help anyone else who looks here (these reports on this number were very helpful to me):
Mother killed by drunk driver in Florida.  Car (92 Olds) breaks down near Ocoee, Fl, on way back. Needs $124 to pay for Greyhound ticket to get family back home.  Asks for money to be sent to Walmart in Ocoee.  Calling from Denny's.  Claimed to have visited my church w/wife and two young daughters in December.  Found literature of my church in his car (wife thought it was a sign).

Upon my asking for specific information (so I could verify his story) he gave me the following: specific address of his home near my church. Job working for Country Fed Meat Company (has truck with freezer).  Wife Maryanne, daughters Jessica and Denise (4 and 3 years old).  Mother's name was Ann Thompson.  Father was Hermon (dead, too).  Has no land-line phone.  Phone calling from was mother's cell phone.  Has no credit card due to abusing one when younger.  Did not fill out visitor card at church because dyslexic.

Told him I would check out some things and call him back.  He called me back several times as I was checking information on internet.  Could not verify anything.  Although the address was an actual house.  This site was quite helpful to further verify that the church was being scammed.  Called him back to tell him I would not be able to help him because he was scamming and was hung up on before I could tell him I would pray for him and his repentance.

Me too.  Just got "John's" call today and he must have the 124.12 stuck in his memory because that is the exact amount he was looking to scam from me.  I asked if he could put his wife "Marianne" on the phone and he said that if he went back into Denny's he would lose the cell connection - but I wouldn't take no for an answer.  No one called back.  
May the Lord grant him repentance and a true knowledge of Christ.

John has called our church twice this year. The first time he explained that I knew his wife and family from visiting our church. He was very hard to understand. He said that his daughter had been killed and he needed help. I suspected a scam. I told him that we were a small church and that his family had not visited our church. He called back several times in one day. He tried the same scam ten months later. This man who attempts to scam the local church needs Jesus! Don't give him any money, but he needs your prayers.

Yep, me too.  He called me last year too.  When I said, "Oh, you are the guy that has called me occasionally" he hung up on me.  We are a small church and he keeps saying that he was there and I met him and his kids.  Beware my friends.... And even worse, now he isn't calling the church, he is calling home numbers (over and over)

Same story, same number, same name.  Told him he needed to find Jesus and not prey on others.  He hung up on me.

John Thomas or someone claiming to be John Thomas called one of our church members recently.  His story was basically the same as what others have reported. He came to our church on thanksgiving and was not stranded in FL with his wife and two small children.  He said he had gone to FL to bury his mom who was killed by a drunk driver the previous week. The guy is a fast talker and smooth as well. We get these calls all the time so I have learned to ask lots of questions. He had an answer for everything. When I offered to have a friend how lives in the local area come pick him up, he started to stumble a bit and I knew something was up.  He kept insisting that was not needed all he really needed was $124.12 to make up the difference for the cash he needed for bus fare home.
Once my suspicions were confirmed by this wonderful site and after finding no record of his moms death in the obituaries, I told John I would not be sending him any money. At this point he got very upset. He pulled the "you just want to make fun of me while I am down on my luck..." and "I thought you were a Christan" is this anyway to treat "a fellow believer" etc. I offered again to have someone come pick him up and then he got really mad and after a few more choice words hung up the phone.
He then called back and started apologizing and trying to play the game again. I refused to send money offering again to have a friend come meet him and I got another round of his tongue lashing. I blocked his number after that.
This guy seems to be doing this a lot I wish there was a way to catch people like this. They are the reason churches have such a hard time helping people out these days. It is becoming impossible to tell who is real and who is just trying to scam the church.

I got "John"s call on Monday afternoon. True to form, he said he had been to our church Before Thanksgiving. I listened and he gave me all the information I needed. All the info he fed to me was easily found on our church website.

I know it's a frustration to be the target of a scam, but we don't have to be victims to it. I have found that with a little patience and some appropriate questions, scammers (whether in person or over the phone) will tangle themselves in their lies.

A man claiming to be John Thomas (or Thompson, I couldn't understand him very well) just called our home phone asking to speak to my husband about a death. He called our church by name and insisted we knew him his wife and two little girls from church.  He called both my husband and me by our first names, and asked for the phone number of another church member, which I didn't share.  He claimed his mother had been killed by a drunk driver and his family was in Florida for the furneral, they had just pulled out onto the interstate headed back to Texas and their car had broken down.  A quick visit with our pastor and associate pastor confirmed that this man was not known to them... other than from his calls about every 6 months with the same story.

We received a call from "John Thompson" this afternoon soon after we got home from church. John insisted we met him, his wife, and 2 daughters at Thanksgiving time when they visited our church in North Dakota. He repeatedly called my wife by her first name, to the point that she said it was unnatural in regular conversation. John requested that I call him back ASAP because they have had a death in the family. A google search brought us here. We will not be calling him back. His number is 407-536-0172

Yep. i received a call from "John" this morning. Same story .. mother died and he needed funds to get home after his car broke down. He started by saying we met his family at our thanksgiving service and he needed help with his mothers funeral and to get back home to Illinois. Problem for him was that our church is real small and only a year old and I know every member and their family and we didn't have any visitors at our thanksgiving service. I was waiting for the money pitch and told him that I would pass it onto the members to see if they wanted to help. Sad that people try to scam churches.

This is known as a "small Church scam". Minister at a Church receives a phone call about an emergency. They claim to belong to the Church & need funds. I believe that you would agree, it's next to impossible for a Minister at a small Church not to know all his parish. It's a scam.

I am a Pastor. A man named John called our church number from this cell phone number. He said he was calling for me (by name) and that it was about a death. The number is an Orlando, FL number - and I don't know anyone in Orlando. A little research verifies that this is a scammer. Same scam, new number. Read about it here: http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-407-312-0437