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The National Association of Funeral Directors has warned on the “worrying” trend of fraudsters targeting bereaved people in a range of funeral Facebook scams.
The scam preys on vulnerable people and those who are an easy target, the association has said, by taking genuine funeral information from the internet and posting links to a supposed livestream of the funeral.
They then ask for credit card details to “secure the booking”. Once people enter the details, their card details are in the hands of fraudsters who can then cause significant financial loss to the card holder.
Other tactics include setting up fake profiles and sending friend requests to those close to the deceased person, often asking for money for fundraising campaigns or donations that do not exist.
The NAFD has warned that these fake links and pages look very real, as scammers often copy and paste real photographs of the deceased person taken from a funeral director’s site or a genuine tribute site.
As a result, the trade association has reiterated that watching the livestream of a funeral service is free of charge, asserting that you should never be asked for payment.
A NAFD spokesperson said: “Any livestream or fundraising links will be provided by the funeral director to the bereaved family, so please always check any links or pages with the family or funeral director first – and never accept friend/page follow requests, or click links, without checking them out first.”
