Earlier this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) implemented a funeral assistance program to help people pay funeral expenses for their loved ones who have died from COIVD-19. While this program was starting, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned that scammers are calling loved ones of COVID-19 victims offering to “help” them to pay for funeral expenses.
In the last few weeks, the daily total of deaths due
to COVID-19 in Washington State have spiked above 10 deaths per day according
to a chart published by The Seattle Times.
The FEMA plan would pay up to $9,000 in funeral
expenses for loved ones who have died of COVID-19 since January 20, 2020. Survivors
should apply for benefits by calling FEMA at this toll-free, multi-lingual number-
(844) 684-6333.
In April, the FTC warned that scammers were contacting
people and “offering” to register them for assistance even before the FEMA
program started.
The FTC points out,
·
FEMA will not contact you until you have
called FEMA or have applied for assistance.
·
The government will not ask you to pay
anything to receive this financial help.
·
The government will not call, text, email,
or contact you on social media and ask for your Social Security, bank account,
or credit card number.
·
Do not give your own or your deceased
loved one’s personal or financial information to anyone who contacts you out of
the blue.
Someone who calls, texts, or emails you, claiming to
be from FEMA and offering help with funeral expenses, out of the blue, is a
scammer. Losing a loved one is a traumatic time. There’s the loss and there is
the work of making all sorts of arrangements that make this time stressful.
Scammers know that this stressful and try to steal your money and your personal
information by taking advantage of you while you are under stress.
FEMA discourages disclosing any personal information
of a deceased individual such as name, birth date, or Social Security number to
anyone who initiates an unsolicited telephone call, email, or text message. After
you have applied for the funeral program, FEMA says that it may call you from
an unidentified phone number. If you doubt that a caller is legitimate, FEMA
recommends that your hang up and report the call to the COVID-19 Funeral
Assistance Helpline at (844) 684-6333 or to the National Center for Disaster
Fraud Hotline at (866) 720-5721.
For more details about obtaining funeral assistance from
FEMA, check out the following links,
Federal Emergency Management Agency:
https://www.fema.gov/disaster/coronavirus/economic/funeral-assistance
https://www.fema.gov/disaster/coronavirus/economic/funeral-assistance/faq
Federal Trade Commission:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2021/04/scammers-target-loved-ones-covid-19-victims
US Department of Justice National Center for Disaster
Fraud:
https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud
The Seattle Times:
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