A grieving son has shared the ‘sick’ messages he received from someone posing as his dead mother on Facebook.
Andrew Barnsley lost his mum, Linda, two years ago to heart failure, so he was shocked to receive a message online recently from an account using her name and photograph.
The call centre worker, from Paisley in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, took to Twitter to discuss the hurtful experience and share a screenshot of the conversation, which the impostor began with a casual, ‘Hello, how you doing? xx’.
Andrew expressed his disgust at the situation, responding:
Who the f*ck is this
Though the 20-year-old had made clear he was offended by the situation, the cruel person continued the stunt by writing, ‘Hi It’s Linda Xx’.
Andrew didn’t hold back as he unleashed his anger on the impostor, telling them their message was ‘sick as f*ck’ and asking: ‘why the f*ck would whoever this is create a profile of my dead mum’.
The heartbroken son described his mum as his ‘best friend’ and his ‘everything’, pointing out his loss is ‘a lot harder when something like this happens’.
Recalling the moment he received the message, Andrew said:
Obviously it completely caught me off guard and I was shocked as I’m just sitting watching Netflix with my girlfriend and it says my mum wants to connect with me on Facebook.
I clicked on it and seen [sic] the message and instantly burst into tears and I think I kept crying for another two hours in shock and I was upset at the fact that someone would do this.
The angry son then turned to his Twitter followers to help him find out exactly who had been posing as his mother as he asked if anyone knew how to ‘track’ the Facebook user.
Andrew tweeted:
Loosing [sic] my mum 2 year [sic] ago was the hardest thing av [sic] ever went [sic] through n [sic] still breaks ma [sic] heart n [sic] some wee sick c*nt thinks they can sit and make a fake messenger of her and mail me.
Does anyone know a way I can track this to whoever has done this and f*ckin punch f*ck out [sic] them?
The call centre worker said he didn’t know if the account had been created by a scammer or ‘someone thinking it’s a funny joke’, though he explained he wouldn’t have closure until he knew who was behind it.
Andrew hasn’t reported the message, which he plans to show police, in case Facebook deletes it.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.