02/23/2015

Scam Prevention List for Funeral Homes

Precautions to Avoid Merchandise Fraud

1. Whenever the funeral home receives an email detailing that some person has died and the sender is looking to make funeral arrangements, your radar should click on.  This is especially true if the sender is from outside the USA.  Funeral homes should insist that the person makes arrangements in person or over the phone.  Do not commit to any arrangements until you can verify the death and the location of the body.  Never pay out any cash advances such as funds for air travel or the removal costs of the funeral home holding the body.  Do not give out your banking information if the sender wants to “wire” money to your account.

2. Simply because a charge goes through on a credit card does not mean that it is legitimate.  The credit card may have been stolen and a chargeback will be eventually made against the funeral home when the theft is discovered.  Funeral homes should be very careful about accepting credit card payments when the contract is initiated by the consumer and the credit card number is given via e-mail, fax or telephone.  If a consumer sends you a check and asks you to ship merchandise, wait until the check has cleared and the money is in your account before shipping the merchandise.

3. Never wire funds to a consumer, especially overseas.  Also, do not provide account information to an overseas consumer who needs to deposit funds into your account. 

4. Be suspicious whenever the purchase order is for several of the same items of merchandise, like cremation jewelry.

5. Whenever a funeral home is required to ship to an international address, it should be suspicious.  Many scams are initiated overseas.

6. VISA advises that merchants should be careful when shipping to a single address when the transaction is placed on multiple cards.

7. Another sign of a possible scam is orders from addresses that use free e-mail services.  VISA reports that these e-mail services have no billing relationship with the consumer, making them very difficult to trace.

Guidelines to Avoid Telephone Scams

1. Funeral homes should not accept collect calls from shoppers.

2. Funeral homes should never return calls or send faxes to telephone numbers in the “809” area code.  The 809 area code covers the Caribbean and calls that are initiated by scam artists are switched over to a pay-per-call line similar to a 900 number.

3. Be weary if the caller claims to be a telephone company employee or a government investigator checking on possible technical problems with your telephone.  Do not comply with requests to dial certain numbers in order to “check” on technical problems.  Instead, ask the caller for their name and telephone number and then call the telephone company immediately to determine whether there is a problem with the funeral home’s telephone service.  Do not dial any numbers or transfer the call to an outside line.

4. If the funeral home provides telephone calling cards to its employees, the calling card number and personal identification number (PIN) should be memorized.  Never write the PIN on a calling card.  If the calling card is stolen or lost, it should be immediately reported to the company that issued the card. 

5. Do not purchase any item over the phone from an unfamiliar company.  Always request more information in writing and delay your purchase until you have received it and had the opportunity to review it.

6. Never respond or send money to a charity on the basis of a phone call.  Always ask for and wait until you receive written material about any offer or charity.

7. If a funeral home is stung by a telephone scam, immediately alert your telephone carrier as soon as you receive the bill containing the charge.  Inform the telephone company that you are contesting the charge because it is part of a fraudulent scheme.  Most telephone carriers will delete the charge on that basis.