Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog

Editor: Gerry W. Beyer
Texas Tech Univ. School of Law

Monday, October 14, 2024

Scammers exploit grief with fake funeral streaming on Facebook

FuneralA new scam has surfaced in which bad actors claim to offer video streaming of funeral services for the recently deceased. Those who follow the links to these streaming services are then prompted to provide their credit card information and asked to sign up for suspicious video streaming websites.

The news of this scam comes from KrebsOnSecurity, who heard from several victims. It typically targets the friends and family of the deceased. Scammers begin by creating a Facebook group for the person who passed away, listing the correct time and date of the funeral service. They then claim that the service can be streamed online by following a link, which leads to a page requesting credit card information. It’s surprisingly easy to find these fake funeral groups on Facebook. Just searching for keywords like "funeral" and "stream" brings up tons of pages, some for past services, others for upcoming ones.

The scammers behind these fake streaming links operate primarily from Rajshahi, Bangladesh, under a group called apkdownloadweb. They have registered multiple domains, including livestreamnow.xyz, live24sports.xyz and onlinestreaming.xyz. These websites appear to offer live streams for various events, including funerals and community gatherings, but they are simply traps designed to deceive users.

The individual allegedly associated with apkdownloadweb is Mazidul Islam, who has a background in running an IT blog, per KrebsOnSecurity's article. His LinkedIn profile reveals this connection. The email linked to their DNS provider is reportedly associated with another individual, Mohammod Mehedi Hasan, suggesting a network of scammers working together.

You can protect your self from these Facebook scams by verifying the source before you click the link, enabling two-factor authentication, updating passwords regularly, learning about scams, and reporting suspicious activity. Scammers don’t spare anyone, and this Facebook funeral scam should make that clear. They are willing to take advantage of someone’s death and profit from those who are grieving. While this is extremely galling, it serves as a reminder that we can’t let our guard down when navigating through the darkness of the internet. Always watch out for the links you click, even if they seem perfectly safe.

For more information see Kurt Knutsson "Scammers exploit grief with fake funeral streaming on Facebook" Fox News, October 10, 2024.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2024/10/scammers-exploit-grief-with-fake-funeral-streaming-on-facebook.html

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