Widow 'devastated' after husband's funeral targeted by fake livestream scammers

A horrified widow discovered tried to trick mourners at her husband's into paying to watch a fake livestream of the service.

Heather Rodger tragically lost her husband of 32 years, David, on September 4 at the age of 56. His funeral was held on October 2, and organised by Co-operative Funeralcare in Alexandria, . But the following day, a friend of Heather's reached out telling her she had received a friend request on from a scam page called 'David Rodger Funeral Service Live Stream'.

More than 100 people had already joined the page, which was asking mourners to pay to view a of the service. The fraudsters even attempted to trick loved ones into paying extra by including a link to a donation page. A photograph of David and his daughter Sammie was used as a profile picture, which Heather says they lifted from a Facebook post created by Sammie.

Fortunately nobody fell victim to the scam, but Heather has been left devastated by the discovery. She believes the scammer saw an earlier public Facebook post and used the details to create the page, and is now warning locals to be wary.

She said: "I checked out the page itself and noticed it had about 110 friends on it but of those 110, about 30 of them were my actual friends and the rest were complete strangers. Thankfully none of my genuine friends fell for the scam and didn't give over card/bank details to access the stream."

"When I was doing the check on the page, it wasn't my name or the funeral directors' name that had created the page. The funeral director don't post anything. When I spoke to the director they highlighted a few of their clients have mentioned they had the same issue.

"I decided to to see if it had happened anywhere else and it soon became apparent it was quite a common occurrence and even some of my friends had highlighted it had happened to one of their family members who had passed away and the same page had been created."

Heather says the family have been left devastated by the scam and has now warned loved-ones and residents to be vigilant, saying: "My family and I are devastated that there are scammers out there taking advantage of families at their worst moments. Throughout the whole organising of David's funeral from his death, this has been the most upsetting of all, to think my family and friends could be scammed to part with money. I have had three close family members pass away in the last 18 months so you can imagine our hurt at the moment and this has really upset us."

Heather lodged a complaint with Facebook but was first told the page did not breach community standards. The Lennox later contacted Facebook owner, Meta, who launched an investigation before removing the page. Heather said: "All I would say is any families who post any funeral details for their friends to be extra vigilant to any requests that come through to their inbox and to not accept it and report it."

Paying tribute to David, she said: "David and I met and married 32 years ago, he is dad to our daughter Sammie and a loving brother, uncle and a great friend and mentor to friends and workmates and respected by his seniors. He served in the forces before leaving the army and worked for the Scottish Government for 23 years driving the Government Ministers before his sudden death."

"The amount of cards, messages and calls we have received has been nothing short of overwhelming but also a great comfort to us and that is a testament to the man he was and he will greatly and sadly missed by all that knew him."

A spokesperson from Funeralcare said: "We are extremely saddened by the fact that some bereaved families across the nation are targeted by scammers whilst they are grieving. It is important to raise awareness of this issue, so others can be vigilant and such acts can be prevented. We would encourage anyone with any concerns or questions regarding a funeral livestream link to check in with the nominated funeral provider or the individual who is arranging the funeral."

A spokesperson for National Association of Funeral Directors, who has been campaigning to raise awareness on the issue, said: "The scam preys on vulnerable people and those who are an easy target, taking genuine funeral information from the internet and posting links to a supposed livestream of the funeral, asking for credit card details to secure the 'booking'. Scammers also set up fake profiles and send friends requests to those close to the deceased person, often asking for money for fundraising campaigns or donations that don't exist."

"Watching the livestream of a funeral service is free of charge – you should never be asked for payment. Any livestream or fundraising links will be provided by the funeral director to the bereaved family, so please always check any links or pages with the family or funeral director first – and never accept friend or page follow requests, or click links, without checking them out first."

A spokesperson from owner Meta confirmed the page was removed and the account was disabled. They said: "We are continually investing in protections against fraud for people who use our platforms, and work closely with law enforcement to support investigations. We encourage our community to report activity like this to us and the police, so we can take action."