Does anyone know if a phone company would do this after someone died?

[Youreatowel]

I’m so sorry if this is the wrong place to post this and my heart goes out to anyone going through a bereavement. But I wondered if anyone had any knowledge of this.

My best friend and I had a falling out last year and she blocked me on everything, no way of contacting her. Her husband has been very ill for a long time and I’ve often wondered/thought about how he was doing and if I would find out if he did pass away. We weren’t close particularly but I knew him as her boyfriend, attended their wedding, knew their children since babies etc, and always thought very fondly of him.

This morning I got a WhatsApp message from his name (full name) saying he had died and the account was being closed down today (I will copy and paste the message below). If it’s genuine of course I want to reach out to my friend (although unsure how as I’ve checked and I’m still blocked on every possible way to contact her). But something about it just feels off… I mean of course it seems incredibly unlikely any sort of scammer would send a message like this/how would they even know he was ill etc, but I’ve never known a mobile company (EE, we are in England if that’s relevant), send something like this. I’m considering sending a card (as this is the only way to contact her now) with my condolences but if it somehow isn’t genuine that will be an awful thing to do/for them to receive.

Can anyone tell me if UK mobile networks do send messages like this to all contacts (via WhatsApp) when someone passes away, or if I’m involved in some sort of scam and need to ignore/not cause her any unnecessary upset? For context the falling out was over something silly and minor so just me contacting won’t cause any issues/trauma for her other than the fact it may not be true.

The message said this: “This is an automated message. Sorry to inform all his contacts, John Smith passed away and his ee contract is to be closed today. Regards EE customer services”.

(John Smith is a fake name).

I can’t see why your friend would send a text and sign it off as “ee Customer Services”.

I would expect that this is a scam, and later down the line they will message again asking for a contribution towards the funeral or similar.

Do you not have a single friend/acquaintance in common that you could check with if you used to be best friends?

I'm inclined to agree that it's your friend letting you know without having to face the prior falling out.

I don't think any company would announce a named death like this due to data protection rules and common decency!

I'd write her a letter or send a generic card (nice photo of a bright flower in the front, NOT printed "with sympathy") and let them know you've seen the WhatsApp message and are sending love if it's true, and leave the ball in her court to unblock you and let you know otherwise/reach out back to you.

Because she wants the OP to know without having to back down from their argument.

And I don't think it's a scam as they wouldn't have those details and a closed account isn't worth anything to a scammer is it? No links to click in the message either, I assume.

We were college friends and she didn’t keep in touch with anyone else. In fact a couple of our old friends occasionally ask me how she’s doing but they don’t keep in touch with her.

I’ve known a few of her friends over the years (nights out etc) but she’s gradually fallen out with everyone along the way. I can’t think of anyone who she is still in touch with who I have the contact details of.

We live miles away from each other now (I’ve moved several times, I’m over a 2 hour drive from her now) so we haven’t seen each other much since having kids etc. Still kept in touch via phone and text most days until the falling out though. But wouldn’t necessarily know each other’s friends anymore.

My Mum died a few months ago, she was with EE and so am I.
I informed them but there has been no notification to either my phone or hers, which I have

No links or numbers to call or anything.

Just exactly as I posted it except the name change.

No follow up messages or anything asking for details etc either. I didn’t reply to the message.

Sorry to hear about your mum x

Thank you, this is why I asked here as I thought someone must have experienced what EE do after being informed someone had died. I assumed they didn’t send a message to everyone in their contacts.

I also think it's from your ex friend letting you know. If she's fallen out with a few people she may have sent it round to several of her and her partner's old pals.

Can you get a partner/friend/relative to search for him/her on sm and see if there's any info about his death/funeral etc, people often post details of funeral date/time etc? I assume you've googled 'John smith - death notice'?

Sending out that kind of news by WhatsApp would be irresponsible and probably break a lot of data laws.
When a phone line is closed because of bereavement EE won't need to know the circumstances.

I still think it's your friend and she doesn't want to reach out under her name because of pride or fear that you won't want to hear from her.

I would think it's someone using his phone to contact all his contacts. But it could also be a scam.

You could cross-check a local paper in case it's been announced there, but not everyone does death notices in the paper these days. Or just Google.

It's obviously a scam and they've hacked his phone

If its your friend that's a very weird thing to do and I wouldn't get in touch either way

Ring the number? If he answers, he’s not dead.

Was going to say ring the number.

You could check on SM by logging out and just doing a search on her name, there might be something on the profile. Or local death announcements? Google the surname and area, see what comes up.

Have you tried looking up his obituary in the newspaper for her local area. If he is dead then I would guess he hasn't just died as contacting the mobile phone company wouldn't be a day 1 action.

If it is your ex-friend, it seems like she doesn't want to be contacted about this - hence informing everyone but saying the account is being closed so no-one replies.

Have you tried getting someone else to look her up on FB to see if you can see anything there?

Hadn’t thought about the obituary thing, did a Google search and nothing but then I found something with his name, approximate age (I know he was a few years older than me/us) and their town- saying his funeral date. Which was over 2 weeks ago. So it seems he has died. Very sad as he wasn’t very old and has 2 young children.

Still not sure if some bizarre scam (seems less likely now) or my ex friend informing me without having to contact me. Either way at least I can send a card now without worrying it was a scam. I’d have hated to send something and find out he was fine and they had to receive a card like that from me. Thanks everyone x

DP said earlier he would look her up on SM later to see if anything was public about it. He’s at work at the moment. I suppose he doesn’t really need to now as I know he has died but he may still do it anyway.

Don't send a card.

If she wanted you to know, she'd tell you (that's if it's even happened). If she's so daft as to manufacture a message like that, you should stay away from her.

If EE did do this (they didn’t) it would be via SMS text message, not via WhatsApp which is a completely separate messaging app.

I think it is the friend that sent the message too.

I would reply.

Thank you for letting me know.
I am so sorry to hear that.
I have been thinking of him and his wife.

I think this is the obvious answer? She doesn’t feel up to/does want to inform people individually.