Cameron Dalziel's wife, Reine, has been busy canceling his credit cards because they were being used in Ukraine after he was killed in the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash, her brother, Shane Hattingh, told CNN Wednesday.
Dalziel, 43, a father of two and a helicopter rescue pilot, recently moved to Malaysia with his family.
Dalziel was born in Africa, but was using a British passport, while traveling home after attending a conference in Amsterdam. The consulate in South Africa is working with the British consulate to help identify his remains.
"What's ahead is my sister getting her two sons into schools, and getting their lives moving so that she can actually have the time to grieve, because right now she doesn't," Hattingh added.
After the the crash on July 17, witnesses reported seeing separatists pocketing cash, jewelry, and electronic equipment from the site.
On Monday, Alexander Borodai, who is controlling the area of the crash site, confirmed bodies and belongings had been looted. He said that looters "can be found everywhere," while promising to punish any he found.
There were also unconfirmed reports that smartphones and jewelry were being sold in local markets.
Ukrainian officials urged relatives on Saturday to cancel the credit cards of victims.
"I have received information that terrorist death-hunters were collecting not only cash and jewelry of the dead passengers but also credit cards," Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko said. "My humble request to relatives of the victims is to freeze their credit cards, so that they won’t lose their assets to terrorists."
Hugo Hoare, whose brother Andrew died in the crash, said his brothers-in-law in Holland called him in a panic to ask him to cancel credit cards.
"They had seen the report and were stopping any transactions on credit cards and asked me to do the same this end," he said.
Andrew Hoare, 59, who grew up in Somerset, U.K., died alongside his Dutch wife Estella, 51, and their two sons Jasper, 14 and Friso, 12. They were on their way to Malaysia for vacation.
The British Banking Association said that bereaved relatives would be reimbursed if there was any evidence of fraud against victims.
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