A number of “heartless” online scammers have targeted Jay Slater’s upcoming funeral.
Accounts have emerged claiming to offer livestream access to the funeral of the British teenager who died after going missing in Tenerife.
The 19-year-old had been on holiday with friends, when he went to a rave at the Papagayo nightclub in the southern resort of Playa de las Americas on 16 June.
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Mr Slater went to the northwestern mountain village of Masca with two people he had met earlier in his holiday, and was last heard from on the morning of 17 June.
He had set off to walk 11 hours back to his accommodation.
A post-mortem found he died of traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height.
Ahead of his funeral on 10 August, scammers have been trying to rip off people.
Matthew Searle MBE, boss of LBT Global, an overseas crisis support charity which assisted the family throughout their ordeal, said that accounts have claimed to offer livestreams of the funeral in return for likes, follows and even donations.
“We are inundated with reports of these scams, and as fast as we can get the platforms to remove them, more appear,” he said.
He added: “To be completely clear – there is no livestream of Jay’s funeral, and anyone claiming to offer one is a scam.
“As much as being hurtful and deeply unrespectful, this is taking vital donations away from a small charity.
“We ask that anyone seeing one of these pages reports it to the platform.
“Please don’t follow them or send them money.
“It is so typical of the vile trolling this family have received for them to target something so special as a funeral.”
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Mourners attending his funeral have been asked to wear something blue in his memory.
His relatives have also requested instead of flowers, people donate to LBT Global.
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The “celebration of life service” is to take place at Accrington Cemetery Chapel prior to burial.
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Flowers will come from the family but “if anyone would like to bring a single rose to place with Jay, they are more than welcome”, his relatives said in a statement issued through LBT Global.
