The Weekly Breach Breakdown Podcast by ITRC - Funeral Streaming Scams - S5E31

Show Transcript

Welcome to the Identity Theft Resource Center's (ITRC) Weekly Breach Breakdown for October 4, 2024. I'm Alex Achten, Director of Communications & Media Relations of the ITRC. Thanks to Sentilink for supporting the ITRC and this podcast. Each week, we look at the most recent events and trends related to data security and privacy. Throughout this podcast, we have discussed many scams, ranging from QR and AI voice cloning to Olympic and toll road scams. The latest scam to make the rounds is a perfect example of no low being too low for identity criminals. Today, we will discuss funeral streaming scams.

Funeral scams have been around for decades. There are many different variations of funeral scams: Prepaid package funeral scams, impersonation scams and burial insurance scams, to name a few. However, have you heard of funeral streaming scams? 

According to Brian Krebs and Krebs on Security, scammers are flooding Facebook with groups that purport to offer video streaming of funeral services for the recently deceased. Friends and family who follow the links for the streaming services are then asked to cough up their credit card information. Once the credit card information is given, the criminals can use it to commit an array of identity crimes. While funeral groups have been the targets, scammers have branched out into offering fake streaming services for nearly any event advertised on Facebook. 

Let me give you an example of a funeral streaming scam highlighted in Krebs's article. One of his readers had a friend pass away and noticed a Facebook group had been created in that friend's memory. The page had the correct time and date of the funeral service. It claimed it could be streamed online by following a link to a page requesting credit card information.

Krebs searched Facebook for keywords like "funeral" and "stream." It revealed numerous funeral group pages, some for services in the past and others for upcoming funerals. These groups include images of the deceased as their profile photo and seek to funnel users to a handful of newly registered video streaming websites that require a credit card payment before one can continue. Krebs says some of these pages also request donations in the deceased's name.

Earlier in the year, the BBC also reported on funeral streaming scams. It is here and, unfortunately, likely to stay. That is why it is so important for you to protect yourself and others. According to Malwarebytes, several funeral homes have added "this funeral is not being live streamed" to their online notices to reduce the chance of people falling victim to a funeral streaming scam. The National Association of Funeral Directors says you shouldn't have to pay to view a funeral livestream, and official links will be provided to the bereaved family via the funeral director.

Other tips to avoid a funeral streaming scam include:

• Be aware of strange friend requests. They may be scammers looking for a way to comment on your post.
• When you see a comment with these links, report them to Facebook. They will be removed as soon as possible so others may be spared of falling victim.
• Never provide your credit card details unless you are sure who you are dealing with and have verified it directly.

Taking advantage of someone at one of the lowest points in their life seems like something no one would do, even a criminal. However, scammers have no empathy for you or me; no low is too low for them. At the ITRC, we will continue to do our part to keep you as safe as possible from funeral streaming scams and these bad guys.

Contact the ITRC

If you want to know more about how to protect your business or personal information or think you have been the victim of an identity crime or a funeral streaming scam, you can speak with an expert ITRC advisor on the phone, via text message, chat live on the web, or exchange emails during our normal business hours (6 a.m.-5 p.m. PT). Just visit www.idtheftcenter.org to get started.

Thanks again to Sentilink for their support of the ITRC and this podcast. Later this month, we will have an episode of our sister podcast, the Fraudian Slip, featuring Stephanie Shuckers, Director of the Center for Identification Technology Research at Clarkson University. Shuckers and ITRC President and CEO Eva Velasquez will discuss all things biometrics. Next week, we will have James E. Lee on the Weekly Breach Breakdown, looking at our data breach findings for the third quarter of the year, released on October 9. I'm Alex Achten. Until then, thanks for listening.