Just when you thought you’d seen the worst of humanity, scammers have managed to reach a new low.
You thought the Facebook scam about how scammers are commandeering people’s Facebook profiles with fake bereavement posts was terrible? It gets worse.
A woman grieving and hugging a man (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson )
How the new bereavement scam works
While the Facebook post scam ran with fake bereavement posts to glean information about supportive friends, families and even strangers, this new scam targets actual surviving family members of those recently deceased. The scammers reach out to families pretending to be from funeral homes and demand more payment or threaten the cancellation of the funeral.
It is easy to see how distraught loved ones might fall for such scams as they are already under immense stress from losing a loved one. While the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has alerted those in the funeral industry, below are some key steps you can take to prevent you or anyone you care about from falling for this horrendous scam.
1. Pause before taking action
As with most scams, these charlatans are banking on the fact that any urgency they present you with will prevent you from thinking first. They are hoping that catching you in a vulnerable state and giving you an ultimatum will result in action taken before the victim or their family can think it through.
This scam is especially insidious because who would think of preying on family members of someone who is recently deceased? Forewarned is forearmed. So, hopefully, knowing this scam has been committed will give you pause if you should run into such a situation.
Man on the phone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
2. Directly contact the funeral home
Anyone can change the name of their outgoing number (the phone number you are getting a call from) so it may even say in the caller ID that it is from the funeral home you have…
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