Ghoulish fraudsters use tragic Carlow funerals in vile credit card scam
They demand personal info for Mass live-stream access
FRAUDSTERS have attempted to capitalise on the Carlow road tragedy by seeking credit card details to view live streams of the funerals of the victims.
In the run-up to the funeral Masses of Katie Graham, 19, Daryl Culbert, 21, and Michael Kelly, 25, two Facebook pages were created to inform Irish users how to view the ceremonies online.
The page creator sent out friend requests en masse and posted several status updates in an attempt to garner as much publicity as possible.
People are encouraged to visit an external website where they would see a picture of one of the young victims, along with a short death notice, copied and pasted from RIP.ie.
Clicking on the site’s fake video player prompted a pop-up message to appear, requesting that users create an account.
It then redirected users to another website seeking credit card information, while assuring interested parties that no charges would be applied unless they upgraded to paid membership or made a purchase.
It’s not known how many people, if any, fell victim to the scam but similar attempts to generate profits from streaming Irish funerals has caused significant concern in recent months.
This is despite the fact that funerals can be viewed for free from individual church websites
‘To learn of this is very disturbing’
without having to set up an account.
This new type of fraud involves con artists using photographs from a deceased person’s social media profile to populate their services.
Gerard Quinn, a funeral home director in Dundalk, told the Irish Daily Mail that he believes the scam originated in Northern Ireland.
‘It seems to be happening a lot more, unfortunately,’ he said.
‘There was a tragedy that occurred in our parish recently and within hours of the news breaking images had been harvested from the deceased’s own social media profile to populate the page and promote this supposed live stream, despite the parish providing it free of charge.
‘This specific incident was reported to gardaí and the page was taken down, but it reappeared not long after.
‘These scammers target funerals that will have a lot of public interest so the more people become more aware of them the better.
‘But it’s not just funerals. One of our colleague’s parents had a wedding anniversary of note and a Facebook page was set up inviting people to view a live-stream of a public celebration that was never even planned,’ he said. Fianna Fáil councillor John McDonald described the attempts to profit from the funerals of the Carlow crash victims as ‘despicable’.
‘People are under enough grief without the hassle of learning about these type of scams,’ he said. ‘It’s really deplorable to make money off the backs of deceased people.
‘To learn of this is very disturbing, but my advice to anyone would be to only trust the streaming links on RIP.ie or from the church websites themselves,’ he said.
On Tuesday, Michael Kelly, 25, was remembered for his ‘smiling face which reached from ear to ear’ and his love for cars.
He was the last of the three crash victims to be laid to rest, as the families and friends of both Ms Graham and Mr Culbert said goodbye to their loved ones at separate funeral Masses earlier in the week.
The horror crash happened in the Leagh area, on the main road to Wexford, located just 5km from Carlow town on the night of January 31. The driver and two passengers were pronounced dead at the scene while another passenger was badly injured but survived.
A security source has said gardaí are aware of the live-streaming scams, but have not issued an official warning to date.
Attempts have been made to reach Meta [Facebook] for comment.
Quinn’s Funeral Home warned its followers of a similar scam recently.
‘It’s hard to believe we have to do this, but we need to make everyone aware that some disgusting person or group of people are creating Facebook profiles of high interest funerals offering a link to view the service live. They are using photos taken from the persons own social media pages to populate the profile. Once you click on the link, you are asked to create an account and we all know that any financial details provided will be used for fraudulent purposes.
‘We understand the profile created in relation to a tragic bereavement we are dealing with was already taken down and has now reappeared. Gardaí are aware and dealing with this scam locally and nationally.
‘We need to be clear. No one will ever be charged a fee or need to register an account to view any funeral we are conducting. It will either be available for people to see or restricted if that is the particular family’s wishes. No account required ever.
‘This is a sickening scam utilising cherished images of a loved one to entice those who were touched by that person’s life to part with money to view their funeral service.
‘This is a new low for humanity,’ the statement read.
‘This is a new low for humanity’