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Three women allege they were victims of an online scam after sending ashes to a TikTok artist for memorial paintings, USA Today reported.
The unidentified scammer reportedly demanded money if the women hoped to see their loved ones’ ashes again.
The women were offered free paintings dedicated to their loved ones by someone impersonating TikTok creator Federico Portalupi.
Grieving TikTokers are warning others of scam artists offering to create memorials using the ashes of their lost loved ones, only to hold the remains for ransom.
Tennessee resident Kari Ide told USA Today a TikTok artist who went by “Chad” offered to incorporate her late mother’s ashes into a painting for free in December, a proposal she assumed was a generous holiday gesture. She only realized it was a scam shortly after mailing the remains to Georgia, she said in a TikTok video.
“I stupidly sent them the cremation remains that I have of my mother who passed away a little over a year ago, and it was a scam,” Ide said in a video.
In conversations about the project, the artist told Ide that he’d gotten a contract to work in Cambodia. But, after she sent her mom’s ashes to an address in Georgia, she received a troubling email from a sender claiming to be Cambodian customs, USA Today reported.
In the email, the supposed Cambodian customs agent told Ide they had her mother’s ashes and a painting, but she’d need to pay $3,576 as a “clearance fee” if she wanted to receive them.
