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.
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 to those who are 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.