A father who lost his son to cancer was left furious after discovering scammers were trying to profit from his death.
Perth father Mark Tracy told 9News his 19-year-old son Levi died on Tuesday, the day after his own father died.
The family was trying to plan the funeral when they learned that there were Facebook pages set up by scammers asking people for donations in the days after Levi’s death.
The pages mimicked another Facebook page the family had created to keep Levi’s friends and family informed about his condition, called Lifeline for Levi.
With more than 4,000 members, the page was a way for the family to communicate with loved ones and share details about Levi’s experience.
He had encouraged people to donate blood, plasma and a kidney.
“This particular scam page is personally reaching out to people and sending them messages,” Tracy said.
“They have a PayPal account that they try to get people to send them money to.”
Heartless scammers have targeted the grieving family and friends of Levi Tracy (pictured) with messages seeking financial gain after the 19-year-old died from cancer.
Levi was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin T-cell lymphoma when he was seven and had to undergo “grueling” chemotherapy for more than two years before going into remission.
Then, when Levi was 17, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, which sadly cost him his life two years later.
But unfortunately after his death, scammers created fake pages and then contacted Levi’s family and friends asking for donations.
“I am writing to you to ask for your support in a difficult time,” one fraudulent message said, according to Western Australia.
‘Recently our beloved Levi passed away leaving behind a family who needed our help.
‘To help them through this difficult time, I am seeking donations to cover funeral expenses and provide financial support.’
Scammers created fake Facebook groups asking kind-hearted users to donate to their PayPal accounts to “support” Levi’s family (pictured is his father, Mark Tracy)
Mr Tracy said he felt angry and frustrated because this brought everything to the surface again and people were now questioning his integrity.
“Which is difficult at any time, but it’s even more difficult this week,” he said.
‘(Levi) cared about everyone, he had humor, he was just brilliant, he lit up the room.
“There were times when we would not have been able to get ahead without that support.”
