A father who lost his son to cancer has been left livid after discovering scammers were trying to capitalise on his death.
Perth father Mark Tracy told 9News that his son Levi, 19, died on Tuesday, the day following his own father’s death.
The family were trying to plan the funeral when they became aware of Facebook pages that were set up by scammers asking people for donations in the days after Levi’s death.
The pages imitated another Facebook page the family had created to keep Levi’s friends and family updated about his condition that was called Lifeline for Levi.
With over 4,000 members, the page was a way for the family to communicate with their loved ones and share details about Levi’s journey.
It had encouraged people to donate blood, plasma and a kidney.
‘This particular scamming page, they are personally reaching out and messaging people,’ Mr Tracy said.
‘They have a PayPal account they are trying to get people to send 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’s T-cell lymphoma when he was seven years old, going through ‘gruelling’ chemotherapy for more than two years before he went into remission.
Then when Levi was 17, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, which sadly claimed his life two years later.
But sadly after he died, scammers created fake pages, then reached out to Levi’s family and friends asking for donations.
‘I am reaching out to ask for your support in a difficult time,’ one scam message read, according to The West n.
‘Recently our beloved Levi passed away leaving behind a family in need of our help.
‘To assist them in this challenging period, I am seeking donations to cover funeral expenses and provide financial support.’
The scammers created fake Facebook groups asking for kind-hearted users for donations to their PayPal accounts to ‘support’ Levi’s family (pictured, his father Mark Tracy)
Mr Tracy said he felt anger and frustration because it brought everything up to the surface again, and people were now questioning their integrity.
‘Which is hard at any point but even more hard this week,’ he said.
‘(Levi) cared for everybody, his humour, he was just bright, he just lit the room up.
‘There were times, we would not have got through without that support.’