Be Aware: Imposters Posing as Ford Funeral Staff Members

After a death, contact the funeral home as soon as possible. From there, the funeral home will help coordinate arrangements with the cemetery.

When you meet with the funeral home, bring the following information to complete the state's vital statistics requirements:

1. Birth Date
2. Birthplace
3. Father's Name
4. Mother's Name
5. Social Security Number
6. Veteran's Discharge or Claim Number
7. Education
8. Marital Status

• Contact your clergy. 
• Decide on time and place of funeral or memorial service. This can be done at the funeral home.
• The funeral home will assist you in determining the number of copies of the death certificates you will need, and they can order them for you.
• Make a list of immediate family, close friends, and employer or business colleagues. Notify each by phone.
• Decide on an appropriate memorial to which gifts may be made (church, hospice, library, charity, or school).
• Gather obituary information you want to include, such as age, place of birth, cause of death, occupation, college degrees, memberships held, military service, outstanding work, and list of survivors in immediate family. Include time and place of services. If you want to publish the obituary in a newspaper, the funeral home will normally write the article and submit it (the newspaper will accept pictures, which will be returned intact).
• Arrange for family or close friends to take turns answering the front door or phone calls, keeping careful record who reached out. 
• If Social Security checks are automatic deposit, notify the bank of the death.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, every scam has tell-tale signs. If you learn to identify these signs, you can avoid falling into the scammer’s trap. 

Four Signs that It’s a Scam:

1. The scammer pretends to be from an organization you know. 
2. The scammer says there’s a problem with your account or you’ve won a prize.
3. The scammer pressures you to act immediately (giving you no time to think).
4. The scammer will tell you to pay in a very specific way.

1. Block unwanted calls or text messages.
2. Don’t give personal or fina ncial information to a request you didn’t expect (tell the person you will call back with your information; then, you can give the real business a call and confirm that they contacted you).
3. Resist the pressure to act immediately (you don’t have to do anything).
4. Familiarize yourself with how scammers tell you to pay (scammers often say you can only use cryptocurrency, a wire transfer, a payment app, or a gift card).
5. Stop and talk with someone you trust (and call the true business to confirm whether they need anything from you).

Source: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-avoid-scam 

The best defense is a good offense. When receiving calls, remember these three truths:

1. Don’t trust your Caller ID.
2. Hang up on robocalls (ones where it’s an automated message, not a person).
3. Use call blocking to block unwanted phone numbers.

You can visit ftc.gov/calls to learn how to block calls. And if you think you’ve received a call from a scammer, report is at donotcall.gov. 

Source: https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2021/05/unwanted-calls-just-block-em-and-report-em 

If you have already paid a scammer or given them your information, you may still be able to stop the fraudulent activity if you act quickly. 

Visit https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/phone-scams#whattodo to learn what you should do, depending on how you paid the scammer or what information you gave them.