On Facebook, hackers stop at nothing, not even death: watch out for fake funeral scams

The loss of a loved one is a tragic event that scammers use to trap users on Facebook and steal their banking details. This is called the “fake funeral scam”.

Scams on Facebook are unfortunately nothing new, but some can move us more than others. This is the case with what is similar to fake funerals, exploited by unscrupulous hackers. Here, hackers target bereaved loved ones by publishing malicious ads. Unfortunately, the practice is on the rise, placing Facebook once again in the eye of the storm.

Hackers take advantage of mourning to steal bank details

On Facebook, scams are taking a sinister turn, with users targeted when they are vulnerable, when a loved one dies. Fraudsters go to great lengths by painstakingly reproducing real funeral announcements, creating fake profiles and then redirecting mourners to fictitious live streams.

The distress of loved ones then turns into an opportunity for scammers to steal banking information, which plunges victims into a delicate situation. To appear more credible, hackers steal details about people who actually died from legitimate funeral service pages.

Obituaries and tributes published by Internet users are real sources of information for malicious individuals. Especially since some bereaved people go so far as to publish announcements with the photo of the deceased. Once redirected to fake live streams, victims are tricked into providing their banking details, thereby being trapped in a sticky situation at the worst possible time.

Variants of the fake funeral scam proliferate

Despite Facebook’s efforts to delete the pages created by the scammers, the scam persists and does not weaken, focusing mainly and for the moment on certain Anglo-Saxon countries. Worse, there is a variation of this scam, known as “near death”, where hackers send messages or tag users under a post, telling them that someone you know has been in an accident deadly.

Intrigued users click on links leading to fake login pages, which allows scammers to steal their Facebook credentials. Even though many of us today are aware and aware of these scams, the emotion aroused by unexpected death announcements on the social network can lead us to react impulsively.

Especially since the fake Facebook pages on which we can land use all the codes and identity of Mark Zuckerberg’s platform. If Facebook regularly intervenes to remove fraudulent pages, you must avoid clicking on suspicious links and be vigilant.

Source : 404media