Hoaxers who claimed to be victims of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and made contact with grieving families via Facebook have been exposed by a regional newspaper’s investigation.

The Liverpool Echo revealed yesterday how the culprits had made contact with families of Hillsborough victims through the social networking site, themselves claiming to be Liverpool fans affected by the tragedy 22 years ago.

The paper revealed that the sick scam even included a fake will promising £250,000 to a charity set up by a woman whose son was crushed to death at the Sheffield stadium.

Liverpool fans still traumatised by the disaster spent months counselling supposedly genuine victims who turned out to be fake.

The Echo reported that the scam began when a Facebook user named ‘Sean O’Connor’ befriended Amanda Tootle, sister of Peter, who died at Hillsborough.

Claiming that his supposed brother ‘Max O’Connor’ was a survivor of the tragedy, the two became close and often chatted online.

But as the pair planned to meet up in person, news came through online that ‘Sean’ had unexpectedly ‘died.’

People using the site were later told that ‘Max’ had also ‘died’ of cancer.

Investigations editor at the Echo, Luke Traynor said: “I had done quite a lot of stuff on Hillsborough so know a lot of families.

“Initially it was flagged up because a guy had said he was a Hillsborough survivor and hadn’t gone to a match since but had plucked up the courage to go to a game.

“It later came out that he’d died of cancer, that in itself would have been an emotive story but it transpired when we got to the bottom of it that it was a scam – he wasn’t real and the story was made up.”

“This person never materialised. They only existed online and duped a lot of people. It was quite believable.”

He added: “They could have been doing it for months and months. I suspect it’s just one person. Exposing it was a good result.”

The Echo has followed developments for the past six weeks and raised the problem with both Facebook and Merseyside Police who are set to investigate.

Echo editor Alastair Machray, said: “The story was the result of a long-running investigation from our Investigations Editor, Luke Traynor.

“The Echo remains squarely behind the Hillsborough Families and their on-going and drawn-out quest for justice.

“To see them duped in this fashion is disgusting. We have a dossier of evidence that we are preparing to hand over to the police to ensure the culprits are brought to book.”