KULAI: "Just as my family is trying to get over the death of my son, unscrupulous people are using his picture in fake Facebook accounts to dupe people and profit from his demise," said the mother of late Muhamad Aqil Adli Muhamad Zaki, who died in July last year after battling bone cancer.
What was more upsetting to Asmah Jamien, 46, and her husband, Muhamad Zaki Mohd Nazam, 48, was that the incident marks the second time a photograph of their son was used in a fake Facebook account to collect money.
In 2016, the late Muhamad Aqil was diagnosed with cancer at age 12, and underwent 12 chemotherapy sessions and 10 radiotherapy sessions before his death on July 14 last year.
Asmah said the first incident occurred on July 5 last year, when Muhamad Aqil's picture was uploaded in an FB account under the name of a Bahasa Malaysia tabloid newspaper.
A statement, which accompanied the photograph then asked donors to make their donations to an account belonging to 'Azman'.
"Last Wednesday, once again my child's photo was being uploaded. This time in a FB account under the name of Berita Harian (BH) Online Malaysia which we were told to be a fake.
"This time, members of the public are told to make donations into the account of a 'Mrs Nurul'.
"I would like to state that my family has nothing to do with both accounts. My son is no longer with us, so we ask the people not to be duped by these false posts,' she said when met at her home last night.
Meanwhile, Muhamad Zaki said they have reported the first incident to both the police and Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission (MCMC) but were disappointed that the account was still active.
"It seems that no action has been taken and this unscrupulous party is still getting funds. I had also gone to the bank ad told them about the matter the bank said it could only closed the accounts if the police were conducting an investigation and had instructed them to do so."