Fa’anānā Efeso Collins’ death: Church minister among victims of funeral livestream scam

By RNZ

An Auckland councillor and friend of Fa’anānā Efeso Collins is urging people not to fall for fake livestream links to his funeral on Facebook.

It comes as people gather to pay their respects to the 49-year-old MP who collapsed and died taking part in a charity event in Auckland last week.

Josephine Bartley told First Up on Tuesday she had spoken to a church minister in Auckland who had lost money in the scam. She was worried others were falling for it.

“I spent a lot of yesterday looking up who had accepted the Facebook friend request; some of these people are in high positions in the community and they had fallen for it.

“I would then message them to say they were being scammed.”

Panmure-Ōtāhuhu MP Jenny Salesa arrives at Tīpene Funerals where Green MP Fa’anānā Efeso Collins is lying in state. Photo / Michael Craig

Her warning comes after Tipene Funerals, which is organising the funeral for Collins, has warned of fake Facebook pages.

One page has more than 100 friends and advertises a hoax livestream link to his funeral using pictures of Collins and his family.

Collins family spokesman Taito Eddie Tuiavii said while they welcomed community Facebook pages set up to express grief, any with false livestream links or impersonating Collins should not be trusted.

“None of those pages are linked to us. We have no knowledge of them and have no idea who those people might be.”

The seat of Fa'anānā Efeso Collins during a tribute in Parliament after the Green MP died last Wednesday. Photo / Hagen Hopkins.

Bartley said she was receiving friend requests on Facebook which offer links to the livestream of a funeral.

Once accepted, the scammer requests money - sometimes as little as $1 - and says it will take bank details. Once the bank account details are given, people are at risk of finding money cleaned out of their account.

“It is really not good. One guy this happened to was a church minister who wanted to watch the funeral. He sent bank details as requested and fund money had been taken from his account,” she said.

“There are so many of these popping up. They look official - they are headed up with details of livestreams and photos of the Tipene Funerals chapel. But many are scams.”

Bartley was urging people to report any suspicious activity to Facebook.

Tipene Funerals will provide livestream details on its Facebook page closer to the memorial on Thursday.