Scammers target funeral of Alexandria dad as widow 'devastated' by fake livestream
A dad's funeral was targeted by scammers who tried to trick mourners into paying to watch a live stream of the service.
David Rodgers, 56, from Alexandria, died September 4, and wife Heather Rodgers was shocked when a friend contacted her the day after the funeral on October 2 saying she had received a friend request on Facebook from a scam page titled ‘David Rodger Funeral Service Live Stream’.
The page included a photograph of David and his daughter Sammie as a profile picture, a link to a donation page, and asked for money to view a livestream of the service. More than 100 people joined the page, but thankfully no-one sent money to the scammer, the Daily Record reports.
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Heather believes scammers saw a public Facebook post she had made previously detailing funeral arrangements. She said: “I had originally posted I was going to post the streaming service organised by my funeral director, but I then decided not to and to privately send to any friends and family that requested it.
“It was the day after the funeral, a friend had highlighted to me they had received a friend request from the scam streaming page, and when they accessed it, it was then they realised it wasn’t a genuine page when it asked for money to view the streaming. I checked out the page itself and noticed it had about 110 friends on it but of those 110, about 30 of them were my actual friends and the rest were complete strangers.
“Thankfully none of my genuine friends fell for the scam and didn’t give over card/bank details to access the stream. When I was doing the check on the page, it wasn’t my name or the funeral directors’ name that had created the page.
"The funeral director don’t post anything. When I spoke to the director they highlighted a few of their clients have mentioned they had the same issue. I decided to Google to see if it had happened anywhere else and it soon became apparent it was quite a common occurrence and even some of my friends had highlighted it had happened to one of their family members who had passed away and the same page had been created.”
Heather said: “All I would say is any families who post any funeral details for their friends to be extra vigilant to any requests that come through to their inbox and to not accept it and report it.”
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Paying tribute to David, she said: “David and I met and married 32 years ago, he is dad to our daughter Sammie and a loving brother, uncle and a great friend and mentor to friends and workmates and respected by his seniors. He served in the forces before leaving the army and worked for the Scottish Government for 23 years driving the Government Ministers before his sudden death.
“The amount of cards, messages and calls we have received has been nothing short of overwhelming but also a great comfort to us and that is a testament to the man he was and he will greatly and sadly missed by all that knew him.”
The funeral was arranged through Co-op Funeralcare in Alexandria. A spokesperson from Co-op Funeralcare said: “We are extremely saddened by the fact that some bereaved families across the nation are targeted by scammers whilst they are grieving. It is important to raise awareness of this issue, so others can be vigilant and such acts can be prevented. We would encourage anyone with any concerns or questions regarding a funeral livestream link to check in with the nominated funeral provider or the individual who is arranging the funeral.”
A spokesperson for National Association of Funeral Directors, has been running a campaign to raise awareness. They said: ”The scam preys on vulnerable people and those who are an easy target, taking genuine funeral information from the internet and posting links to a supposed livestream of the funeral, asking for credit card details to secure the “booking”. Scammers also set up fake profiles and send friends requests to those close to the deceased person, often asking for money for fundraising campaigns or donations that don’t exist.
“Watching the livestream of a funeral service is free of charge – you should never be asked for payment. 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 or page follow requests, or click links, without checking them out first.”
A spokesperson from Facebook owner Meta confirmed it had removed the page and disabled the account of the user who managed it. They said: “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.”
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