Vile funeral scammers have targeted a grieving family of a Brit tourist who died after jumping from a party boat in Prague.
Joop Sparkes, 29, from Galashiels, about 35 miles southeast of Edinburgh, dove into the Vltava River on Sunday, April 27. His body was recovered a week later following an agonising search by Czech authorities.
But sick scammers soon exploited the family's tragedy after the death was announced on Facebook. The "despicable" crooks had set up three fake pages to advertise his memorial service.
Pictures of Sparkes were stolen and used to convince family and friends to part with hard-earned cash for access to a live stream. His sister Jodie was left devastated by the scam.
"It's absolutely despicable that these people target families who are grieving," she told The Daily Record. "We have enough going on without worrying that our loved ones are being scammed.
"The sickening part was how quickly these pages were set up. We only found out that Joop's body had been found on Monday morning. We were at the embassy when we got notifications about the fake pages being set up within hours. We are trying to deal with a horrific situation and then this happened. It's like they've been sitting there waiting for the news of Joop's death. They're just the lowest of the low."
One family friend had already given the scammers their payment details before Jodie was able to warn them. They have since reported the fraud to the bank.
Jodie continued: "They appear to have specifically targeted people who have commented on or responded to our posts over the last couple of weeks. "The pages have been reported by myself and countless others, but two still remain up online. "
Scammers and other fraudsters target millions of Brits every year. National Trading Standards said last year that 73 per cent of UK adults - or about 40 million people - have been targeted by scammers. It added about 19 million had lost money. The average amount of money lost by victims was £1,730, but fewer than 32 per cent report the scam.
Nick Britten from the National Association of Funeral Directors told The Daily Record that they have started to see this type of fraud recently, with it being particularly prominent in Scotland. High profile deaths have also been particularly targeted.
He added: "We have become aware of an increasing number of scams on Facebook being set up associated with death and funeral notices whereby scammers set up fake pages on the back of genuine death notices and post links to a supposed live-streaming of the funeral, or ask for alleged fundraising donations.
“Friends and family of the deceased person are not only asked to provide their credit card details to supposedly have access to view the funeral, they are sometimes asked to accept a friend request from the scammers – thereby giving them access to their Facebook information and photographs. These links are fake and anyone who engages and hands over their credit or debit card details will be doing so to scammers.
“This is a despicable practice preying on bereaved people. Our advice to members of the public is to be extremely wary of any external links supposedly promoting a live-stream, fundraising or asking for donations, and instead always check with the family or the funeral director to see whether it is legitimate. If a funeral is being live streamed, a funeral director will always be able to provide the correct link. Funeral Directors do not generally charge for live streaming.”
Police Scotand says you can report cyber crime concerns to the National Cyber Security Centre. They advised: "Fraudsters can hack social media and email accounts. This is done to impersonate trusted friends and family.
"Fraudsters will gain control of accounts, predominantly Facebook, and message the account’s contacts asking for money.