There are fresh warnings about online scams after a particularly odious racket targets a Monaghan community grieving a recent death.
It's not the first time scammers have used social media platforms like Facebook to invite people to pay to watch the funeral of a local deceased person online. However, as Monaghan County Councillor David Maxwell points out, churches in Ireland do not charge people to watch a funeral service or mass online, therefore, anyone who is making these posts are sure to be fraudsters.
On this occasion, scammers have posted the death notice of a local child on Facebook telling users they can watch the funeral online for a fee. Cllr Maxwell shared the post so as to warn others not to be fooled and give their credit card details.
He says people can take responsibility in the first instance, by not sharing it, then by refusing to provide their card details and, also by reporting the post to Facebook. "The scammers had put up a fake page for the child and, I suppose, looking at the end of the day to get credit card details for people to pay to watch the funeral service for something that is free and provided by all churches in the country," Cllr Maxwell told Northern Sound, "So, as I've said in my post, there's a special place in hell I believe for these sorts of people who would try to scam money pout of such a tragedy."
