Recently Legacy.Com has been shown to be the creator of a world wide Online Death Notices THE FIRST DIGITAL DEATH, DYING Scandal. Boing Boing, Idle Words.Com Your Funeral Guy, and Charles Cowling from the UK have all commented on the problem but the best coverage was done by the deathreferencedesk.com
Legacy.com stores online obituaries for most of the major Newspapers in the world.
THERE ARE TWO SERIOUS PROBLEMS-
1. Asking for funding money from guest book signers.
2. Legacy.com not being forthright with death notice(obituary Charges)
Snippet from the Deathreferencedesk.com:
“Idle Words did a little research (which Boing Boing then posted) to uncover exactly what’s going on with Legacy—because their mode of operation is less than transparent. At issue is how their online guest books work and the deceptive and manipulative way money changes hands in the process. The process is this: you sign the guest book after which you are greeted with a warning that states that the guest book will expire in a little over a month. You can make sure this doesn’t happen by paying $29 to keep it up for a year, or go for the eternity package and pay $79 to keep the guest book alive “in perpetuity.”
While that might seem a bit crass, that’s not really the issue. Through some investigation, Idle Words discovered that creating an online Legacy.com death notice is a less than forthright when it comes to the money. At no time in the process do they tell you what the charges are (from $79). For that, you need to drill down into the small print back at (in this case) the NY Times rate sheet page—outside of the confines of the obituary creation stage. I dare you to even find where the rate sheet info is because I can tell you it’s under deep cover—and I’m a librarian!
Charles Cowling of the Good Funeral Guide (excellent web site and book) made a comment about the same thing happening at the Legacy.com site in the UK. THIS POINTS OUT THAT THE OBITUARY SCAM IS WORLDWIDE.
“I see that Mr Murdoch’s Times in the UK is similarly afflicted. Mr M is not easily shamed, nor, I guess, the golden-hearted lads and lasses at legacy.com. It has had its share of being badmouthed over the last few years.
It’s a marvellous revenue stream and a tacky site. I see poor Beryl Bainbridge is up there this morning.
And let’s not overlook the labours of partner Obitmessenger: https://www.legacy.com/obitmessenger/default.asp?page=includepartners A good many local papers in the UK have bought into this.
At present, people depend on newspapers to tell them who’s dead. I can’t see how anyone could compete with legacy.com because the consumer is wholly uninformed and therefore powerless. Perhaps the growth of social networking will bring about a better and cost free way of announcing a death, together with a pointer to an ethical and completely free online memorial site like my favourite, muchloved.com.”via Charles Cowling commentdeathreferencedesk.org
This story is extremely significant for two industry’s in trouble, the newspaper industry and the funeral industry, social media is a significant tool for death notification, as well as a news source. More than info on recently dead friends and public figures, social media now provides info on funerals while they are going on!
Jane Bourke on 
tom gosse on 
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