Scammers are using a fake funeral racket to steal thousands of dollars from grieving family members. Here's how it works.

• Scammers are pretending to be funeral home workers to steal from grieving people.
• The FTC said the scam would make the "Scammers Hall of Shame" if one existed.

Criminals are using a fake funeral scam to steal from people who have recently lost loved ones in a fraud the FTC says would make the "top 10 list" for the "Scammers Hall of Shame," if one existed.

According to a Federal Trade Commission statement from June, the scam involves criminals who impersonate funeral home workers. They contact grieving people to tell them their family member's funeral will be canceled unless they immediately pay more money.

Lisa Ann Motto told NBC that she was nearly scammed into sending $2,500 to a person who claimed to work at the funeral home handling her husband's death. Motto said the man told her he needed $5,000 for "insurance purposes," but that she could pay an installment of $2,500 through Zelle or Apple Pay.

Motto tried to make the payment, but it was flagged as suspicious, so the man told her he would send her a PayPal request, but Motto stopped the transaction after her son overheard the phone call and told her to hang up," NBC reported.

Motto told NBC she should have known the call was suspicious, but was disarmed because the man on the phone spoke with a southern drawl and was "real personable."

"They just catch you at such a weak moment," Motto, whose husband, Doug, died at 53 on July 20 from lung cancer, told the outlet. "There's a special place in hell for people like that."

The FTC provides three tips to help avoid becoming a victim of this scam. Resist pressure to pay immediately, contact the funeral home directly, and never pay people asking you to pay through unusual payment methods, such as gift cards, wired transfers, or cryptocurrency.

"Scammers want to get your money immediately, and in a way that makes it hard to track them down and hard for you to get your money back," the FTC said in the statement.