The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, received a phone call asking for her husband, who died a few months ago.

“When I told the caller that he had passed away, she didn’t even flinch. She said he owed money,” the woman said.

“I told her that I had paid all the bills and then she said my husband owned money to women as he was their sugar daddy.”

The woman said she was highly distressed to hear an accusation by a stranger that her husband had been paying other women to be in a relationship with him.

“I was awake all night,” she said.

“But I knew my husband for 45 years and I can account for everything that went through our bank account.”

The woman suspected that scammers had been using death notices to gather details to target the families of recently deceased persons with embarrassing allegations in the hope they would pay to make the issue go away.

“The caller said she would send me a bill. I told her to go right ahead as I would pass their bill on to the federal police,” the woman said.

“Then I hung up on them. 

“I’d recommend to other people just to hang up if they get calls like this.”

The Scamwatch website’s advice for people targeted by extortion scams is to not be pressured and hang up on threatening callers demanding money.

Scamwatch advised if people were concerned for their safety, they should contact the police.