Relatives coming to terms with the death of loved ones are having to deal with unscrupulous undertakers who are quick to offer their unsolicited services.

Speaking to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, family members who were faced with such situations said they started receiving calls from strangers just moments after the death of their loved ones.

Describing the practice as a “complete racket”, they said the phone calls came as a surprise because the last thing they expected was people they did not know calling so soon after relatives or someone close had passed away.

“My wife’s uncle drowned at about 5.30pm and just two hours later, when the family was still come to terms with his loss, we received two phone calls from complete strangers,” a relative told the Times of Malta.

He pointed out that none of the family had given any contact details to undertakers. Upon informing the funeral director chosen by the family about the calls they had received, they were told that seemed to be common practice with some funeral directors who, somehow, could obtain details of those who had just died.

The relatives said they feared the contact details were being released by third parties privy to such information.

Another family endured a similar experience after ambulance staff asked the son of a man who had just passed away whether they had appointed a funeral director.

Just two hours later we received two phone calls from complete strangers

“One of the ambulance staff repeatedly asked me whether we knew a funeral director. It was either the driver or someone who helps load patients onto the vehicle. I was too dazed to even answer,” a family recalled.

Soon after the ambulance had left and not even an hour after his father had died, a man arrived at the family home saying he was informed that the services of funeral director were required.

“I understand that, perhaps in some bizarre way, they think they are providing a service to people who have just lost someone and would be at a loss on what to do next.

“I think this level of service is misplaced. It feels too much like commissions being paid for information given to secure a job, as if the death of a person is purely a way to make a buck,” the distraught family member said.

Perhaps, even worse, a family only realised their loved one had died when an undertaker appeared in the hospital ward where the patient was being treated.

A family only realised their loved one had died when an undertaker appeared in the hospital ward where the patient was being treated

“I had spent more than 10 hours near my dying father and my sister and I was taking it in turns to go home for a quick shower. When it was my turn and I had just reached home, I got a call from her asking me to go back to the hospital. I rushed back but no one needed to say anything... the undertaker’s presence said it all,” a relative said.

“My mother later explained that the undertaker had turned up before my father had passed away. He even followed her to the elevator (at 11pm) when she was leaving to get a clean suit in which to bury my father and he suggested she uses his services.”

An undertaker’s presence is the last thing one would want when standing by the side of a loved one whom you will be hoping will make it through the night, she went on.

“Really, it’s not an ideal situation when you are still trying to get to terms with their death.”

Questions sent to the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority on the matter remained unanswered.