A Westchester County resident recently reached out to The Journal News/lohud after discovering an obituary online for a loved one that was shockingly inaccurate.
Although it listed correct memorial information, other key details — such as the individual being a parent — were wrong.
But the obituary in question was not the one she paid for on lohud.com. It was on an illegitimate obituary site, which have become increasingly common. They try to profit off grief, whether through ad revenue, fake flower sales or scam service links.
Some sites fabricate obituaries using public information. Others repost real obituaries from legitimate sites without permission, often mimicking funeral homes’ websites.
Some illegitimate obituaries are reposted without consent
While the obituaries on many of these sites may appear legitimate at first glance, they are often created or reposted by third-party companies aiming to generate revenue, sometimes at the expense of grieving families.
Matthew Fiorillo, owner of Ballard-Durand Funeral & Cremation Services in White Plains, said these websites scrape online funeral home obituaries and repost them without consent.
“There [are] several fishing websites where they fish funeral homes’ websites and they take obituaries,” Fiorillo said.
Families can be easily confused by these sites — and then use them to order flowers or memorial items that never arrive.
“If a family calls our funeral home and says ‘we ordered a flower piece [and] it never arrived. We ordered it from your website,’ they’re not actually on our website,” Fiorillo said. “It looks like our website, but it’s not.”
These copycat sites may not alter the obituary information itself, but their goal is to generate revenue through e-commerce, often using search engine techniques to appear like they’re getting a lot of views.
Other obituary scams go beyond copying
Tony Adams, a senior security researcher with the counter threat unit of Sophos, an international cybersecurity company, said that some websites go further than simply reposting obituaries.
They create entirely fake ones using bits of available information, likely with the help of artificial intelligence.
“What we determined was that someone had created a number of fake obituaries,” Adams said. “They were posted on websites that had funeral or memorial service themes in the domain name and in the way that they were constructed.”
Many of these websites are designed to funnel users into profit-driven schemes.
These fake sites often ask visitors to prove they are not a robot, which actually triggers a push notification subscription that can bombard users with misleading ads and scams.
“They’re essentially trying to get the visitors into some sort of subscription-based scheme, or driving visitation to adult, gaming or gambling websites,” he said.
False obituaries can take emotional toll on families
For grieving families, seeing a false obituary or being misguided to a third-party website can only worsen a stressful time.
“[These sites] could cause emotional distress to grieving families and friends,” Fiorillo said.
Adams echoed this sentiment, having experienced it twice, which prompted him to do further research.
“Anybody who encounters these websites… they’re going to be sad, angry, disappointed, furious and that’s natural,” Adams said.
What can be done when facing fake obituary sites?
Fiorillo encourages families to always verify they are on the funeral home’s official website.
“Make sure you’re visiting the actual funeral home’s website,” he said. “That’s the first thing we mention… Oftentimes they’re not on [the right] site.”
Adams also stressed awareness as a key defense.
He suggested people look for warning signs such as pop-ups asking you to prove you’re not a robot or advertisements for gambling and adult sites, which legitimate funeral home sites would not have.
Anyone who comes across a loved one’s obituary on a fraudulent site should contact their funeral home directly and consider reaching out to authorities or online platforms hosting the content.
“We usually advise families to reach out to the proper authorities and if the information being shared is false or harmful, filing a cease and desist is an option” said Michael Lanotte, executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Fake obituary websites sow confusion, exploitation for grieving families. What to know
Reporting by Michelle Grisales, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
