{"id":10152,"date":"2025-01-24T11:22:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebao.ca\/?p=10152"},"modified":"2025-07-28T10:59:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:59:59","slug":"notice-to-the-profession-bao-reminds-licensees-to-alert-families-about-copied-obituaries-and-funeral-notices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebao.ca\/stage\/notice-to-the-profession-bao-reminds-licensees-to-alert-families-about-copied-obituaries-and-funeral-notices\/","title":{"rendered":"Notice to the Profession\/Consumers: BAO reminds licensees to alert families about copied obituaries and funeral notices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s important that grieving families know about the persistent issue of copied or \u2018pirated\u2019 death notices and obituaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) is asking you, as licensed professionals, to share this information with people making funeral or other bereavement care arrangements with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are companies continuing to make money by reposting obituaries without the permission, or even knowledge of, the grieving families and funeral homes which originally posted them.<br><br>These companies often copy, paste, and sometimes rewrite obituaries originally posted in newspapers and funeral home websites. The companies then use the \u2018pirated\u2019 postings to offer to sell candles, plant a tree, and\/or sell other in-memoriam gifts \u2013 which people mistakenly think are on behalf of the families.<br><br>It\u2019s sadly nothing new and adds stress to families mourning the loss of a loved one. The BAO alerts the public a few times a year about such companies that are \u2018pirating\u2019 or copying obituaries to draw traffic to their websites to sell memorial items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BAO does not regulate these non-licensed businesses operating commercial websites. For this reason, we encourage our licensed operators to bring this issue to the attention of families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Advice to families<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To help consumers, here\u2019s some advice you can share:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There is a risk that in posting a death notice or obituary (on a website of a funeral establishment or local newspaper) that a company could copy and paste the information for their own profit;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Copying death notices and reposting them is not done by licensed professionals;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Families can ask the company to remove the copied obituaries and death notices from their websites. (In most cases they have removed them following a request from families of the deceased.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verify any obituaries and death notices before buying anything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Verify<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People can verify online obituaries and death notices by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Only trusting death notices and obituaries posted on BAO-licensed funeral establishment websites; <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Looking for the \u2018Licensed by the BAO\u2019 badge at the bottom of funeral establishment website homepages; <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Checking the name of the business that has posted the obituary\/death notice on the <a href=\"https:\/\/portal.thebao.ca\/public-register\/\">BAO\u2019s Public Register<\/a>, which lists all licensed businesses and individuals. (The Public Register is also linked on our public website, <a href=\"https:\/\/thebao.ca\/\">TheBAO.ca<\/a>);<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Calling an establishment or other BAO-licensed businesses in the area if the family is unsure; or,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Emailing the BAO at <a href=\"mailto:Licensing@TheBAO.ca\">Licensing@TheBAO.ca<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Public knowledge is the best defence for consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For several years the BAO has sounded the alarm on this issue. We have published Notices to the Consumer by the Registrar, alerted the public in our social media feed as recently as Jan. 14, and provided information in many news articles, including this informative one on Jan. 16 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/toronto\/consumer-alert\/article\/it-felt-like-a-huge-violation-ontario-family-shocked-to-find-their-loved-ones-obituary-on-website-without-their-consent\/\">by CTV News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your help in alerting people would help inform grieving families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank you for your professionalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s important that grieving families know about the persistent issue of copied or \u2018pirated\u2019 death notices and obituaries. The Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) is asking you, as licensed professionals, to share this information with people making funeral or other bereavement care arrangements with you. There are companies continuing to make money by reposting obituaries&#8230;","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notice-to-the-consumer","category-notice-to-the-profession"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Notice to the Profession\/Consumers: BAO reminds licensees to alert families about copied obituaries and funeral notices - Bereavement Authority of Ontario<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thebao.ca\/stage\/notice-to-the-profession-bao-reminds-licensees-to-alert-families-about-copied-obituaries-and-funeral-notices\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Notice to the Profession\/Consumers: BAO reminds licensees to alert families about copied obituaries and funeral notices - Bereavement Authority of Ontario\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s important that grieving families know about the persistent issue of copied or \u2018pirated\u2019 death notices and obituaries. 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