Mourners are the target of a “despicable” and rapidly increasing funeral scam.
According to the BBC, con artists are utilizing images from memorial pages and user information on Facebook to spread phishing links that purport to take mourners to a live feed of the funeral.
However, the fraudsters strike when they are asked for payment card information on order to gain entry, rather than showing them the funeral.
Cybersecurity specialist Adrianus Warmenhoven of NordVPN explained to Metro.co.uk how individuals may guard against frauds.
“The primary issue is that this is a phishing scam, and phishing scams operate by tricking victims into believing that the message is legitimate,” he stated.
‘The trust in this case comes from the feeling or the concept that nobody would be as low or despicable to use a funeral to get money out of people, and this is actually the main point that these scammers are using.
‘I see a lot of times with scammers that people say “How can somebody do this”?
‘Well, to them, you’re not a real person. You’re some bytes and digits half a planet away, so they don’t feel that there’s anything personal or human about it.’
To avoid falling for such a scam, Mr Warmenhoven recommended anyone planning to attend a funeral virtually contacts the funeral director personally, if they cannot speak to a member of the family.
‘These live streams should always be free,’ he said. ‘Go to the funeral director, email them – because the big problem is simply you have no way of knowing if a random person posts something online that it’s really that person.
‘And the same goes as with every phishing message – the moment somebody asks you for money in an emotional or urgent situation, even if it feels counterintuitive, take a step back and think, is this really the proper moment or proper way to request money?
‘Besides that, there’s not actually a lot we can do.’
How to keep yourself safe online from scams
- Protect your email by using a strong and separate password
- Turn on 2-step verification (2SV)
- Take a step back if feeling rushed or under time pressure
- Check the email address from any emails that may be a scam
- Double-check the sender’s identity
- Don’t trust unknown attachments or links
Funeral directors have also urged people to be on guard against scammers using genuine memorial posts.
Julie Whitehouse, from Darlington’s Whitehouse Funeral Services, told the BBC: ‘I don’t know how someone could go so low as to latch on to a funeral business to try and scam people. We only get one chance to do what it is we do and we want everything to be as it needs to be on that day.
‘Then, when the day of the funeral arrives, we’re running around trying to stop scammers when we should be making sure the cars are ready, the flowers are done and the family are supported.’
Like many companies, the firm offers bereaved people the opportunity to post a memorial image and message on Facebook in honour of lost loved ones.
A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, said: ‘We don’t allow fraudulent activity on our platforms and we remove this content as soon as we become aware of it.
‘We are continually investing in protections against fraud for people who use our platforms, and work closely with law enforcement to support investigations.
‘We encourage our community to report activity like this to us and the police, so we can take action.’
