Death Scams

Below is an article from WA Today. It reminds me of my GF who lost her husband (to death!) about 18 months ago. He was cremated after the most beautiful service I have ever seen. His coffin was fairly expensive.

A few months later, she gets a notice to get up to some office of anther and pick up his ashes or they would be thrown away in a matter of days. She went in to pick the ashes up and had some general discussion regarding the weight of the ashes. She said something along the lines of that she expected that the ashes box would weigh more because of the coffin, etc. He commented that the coffin was not cremated and therefore wasn't in the box. She asked what they did with the coffin in that instance. The guy got really cagey and she got the impression that he had let something out of the bag that was not supposed to be let out.

So, my GF and I have the impression that the coffin that you buy, is, in the instance of cremations at least, merely a rental. This is not dislosed in any way that she can recall.

When I saw the headline of the below article I almost did not click on it because I figured it would be just some genral whinge by a bunch of old farts who thought the rules should change for them.

I was wrong.

These people have been told that all contracts for funeral plots that were previously for 50 or 99 year terms have been retroactively declared as 25 year terms. So someone may have paid a reasonable amount of money and signed a contract that said 99 years when they buried their spouse 24 years ago and thought that they would be able to "join" them in the grave when the surviving spouse died. Now they have to cough up another amount for the next 35 years. This is unleblievable!!!!

Does anyone else know any other death scams, other than the overpriced funeral business in general?

Here is the article — http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/wa-families-stand-to-lose-…

WA families stand to lose relatives' grave sites Jerrie Demasi
June 18, 2012 - 12:45PM

Tens of thousands of Perth families have been told to pay up or they stand to lose the grave sites of their loved ones, the opposition claims.

Under new legislation introduced by the WA government on July 2, owners of burial plots are required to renew their tenures after 25 years instead of 99 years as previously agreed.

According to shadow local government spokesman John Hyde, if owners of expired plots weren't able come up with between $1800 and $2500 dollars in less than three weeks, their grave sites would be dug up and re-sold.

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