‘Despicable’ scammers preying on terminally ill people trying to end their lives

Sun, 28 Apr, 2024 – 12:45 Sarah Horgan in The Irish Examiner

Sophisticated scams aimed at terminally ill people trying to end their own lives have come under fire from an assisted dying advocate whose picture was used as part of the con.

Tom Curran, who is the European coordinator for the right-to-die movement Exit International, said he is receiving several reports a month of people claiming to offer illegal barbiturates to end their suffering. Mr Curran was shocked to see his own picture used on one of the sites in a particularly disturbing case of identity theft.

It comes more than a decade after the death of Mr Curran’s partner of 25 years, Marie Fleming, who tried unsuccessfully to change the legislation around assisted dying at the Supreme Court in April 2013. She died later that year aged just 59.

Now, the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying is expected to recommend the introduction of assisted dying in cases where a person is diagnosed with a terminal condition. The patient must be in intolerable pain and unable to find relief for this option to be considered.

Mr Curran described the manner in which scammers are preying on people seeking to end their own lives as “despicable”.

“There are literally hundreds of these sites,” he said. “It is reported back to me a couple of times a month. New sites are popping up all the time. As soon as we get it out there that it’s a scam the same people start another site.” 

He recalled receiving phone calls from people who believed they were dealing with him directly.

“There are 400 sites but how often they are used I have no idea. I’ve got calls from people directly asking where their stuff was because they hadn’t received anything from me. They think they are dealing with me on the site because my name and photo have been used.” 

The scam, Tom explained, is attractive for con artists who know their crimes will likely go unreported.

“How do you tell the police that someone tried to scam you when you were buying illegal drugs? This is why they get away with it. The people they are preying on are very vulnerable which makes what is happening even more despicable. The difficulty is the culprits know they are never going to be caught.” 

He said there are people out there who may not even realise they have been duped.

“Some people do get the drugs in the post and put them away. It’s only when the time comes and they go to use them that the reality becomes clear. In many ways this is worse than receiving nothing in the post because at least in this situation the victims knows they have been scammed.” 

Mr Curran said the majority of those who fell victim to the scam were elderly who may “not be as internet-wise as younger generations”. 

“As far as many are concerned everything that you see on the internet is honest.” 

He added that victims don’t want people around them to know what they are planning. 

“They don’t want to get them into trouble. If a grandchild or son or daughter helps or organises the purchase then they are breaking the law. This in itself is considered assisting.” 

He is pleading with people to be vigilant about similar scams.

“All we can do is make people aware that these sites are bogus.”