Funeral Home Scam Reported In Minnesota
This shouldn't be too much of a shock but there's another way scammers are targeting people and this one involves one of the most personal matters in life, which makes it even scarier than your average scam.
You'd think scammers would have run out of ways to trick people out of their personal or financial information but it seems like they are still going strong. They have been going especially strong lately, with several different scams making their way around both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
This scam was reported by a company called Minnesota Valley Funeral Homes. They shared details of this scam on Facebook on Wednesday (January 25th). The company is located in New Ulm, Minnesota, which is about four hours from the Twin Ports.
It looks like scammers really are sinking lower than ever before, targeting people who have recently lost loved ones in an effort to get personal information about the deceased. According to the company, a local family received a call from a scammer, who went forward with a ruse.
The scammer pretended to be from the funeral home, posing as an employee. They posed as an employee and tried to get "vital information" about the person who passed away from the family member on the other end of the line.
The company says they will never call you directly like this and ask any personal information about your loved ones. They say that if they ever need any information in the future, they will be asking you to call them directly so nobody falls for this scam.
This is obviously disturbing considering the fact that losing someone puts you in a very vulnerable position. You may not be thinking as you normally would and emotions are high, meaning your more likely to fall for the scam.
Not only that but because losing someone isn't something that happens often, you may not know the rules or protocol and think the scammer is actually legitimate. If you get a call like this, hang up and call the funeral home directly to save yourself time and issues in the future.
This really is a new low for scammers. Make sure you call and report the scam to the funeral home they are posing as and the local police department so nobody gets away with something this disgusting.