Identity Theft Protection Lock

Identity Theft: Deceased Victims

Impersonation of the dead is rapidly growing as an identity theft crime. In Louisiana, three people were recently arrested for stealing the identities of more than 100 deceased individuals. One of the alleged identity thieves worked in a hospital emergency room and would send text messages to her adult son, containing personal identifying information of dying patients. The son and his wife would apply for credit cards using the dead persons information.

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The alleged identity thieves would also look in the obituaries for information and then use the hospital’s database to research information on the deceased. Persons who recently died were apparently targeted because their names and information did not yet appear on lists sent to financial institutions notifying them of the deaths of their clients. Identity thieves have also discovered the Social Security Death index as a means of acquiring names of the deceased so that they may begin the process of identity theft. The true purpose of the Social Security Death index is for genealogy research. Stolen death certificates are also sought after by the criminal element.

Unfortunately, the identity thief may even be a family member who will attempt to take advantage of the situation or has already been using the identity of the deceased person. The family member turned identity thief may be especially true if the deceased had to withstand a lengthy illness, mental illness/dementia or if there was a disagreement among family members before the death. With a death having just occurred, you may not be in a state of mind to protect the finances and reputation of your loved one, but you really have no choice.

There are practical steps that relatives and executors can take to protect the identity of the recently deceased, but we are not attorneys and we are not providing legal advice with this article (or any other) and this article (or any other) is not to be considered legal advice, we are just trying to provide some help to protect you from these heartless identity thieves who do steal the identities of the recently departed.

• Don’t allow too much information to be placed in the obituaries. Do not include the date of birth, place of birth and address of the deceased individual. These pieces of information make it a lot easier for identity thieves to be successful. By providing an address you invite a thief to go to the house, break in and steal items while everyone else is at the funeral.
• Acquire at least 12 copies of the death certificate as soon as it is available. It will be easier to order 12 copies right away than attempting later on. A lot of banks and other financial institutions and the credit reporting agencies require a copy of an official death certificate to update their records.
• Immediately notify all credit card companies, banks, credit unions, stock brokers, loan/lien holders, mortgage companies, financial management companies, and all other financial institutions where the deceased held an account. If you close any of these accounts, insist that the financial institution lists “Closed: Account Holder is Deceased” as the reason for closure.
• Immediately notify all three major credit reporting agencies in writing and provide copies of the death certificate by certified mail, return receipt requested, and advise them to place a “deceased” alert on the individual’s credit report.
  Experian:
  PO Box 9701
  Allen, TX 75013.

Equifax:
Equifax Information Services LLC
Office of Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 105169,
Atlanta, GA 30348

TransUnion:
PO Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834.

• Immediately notify the Social Security Administration of the death at 800-772-1213 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on business days. For the hearing impaired, the number is 800-325-0778 .
• Notify your states Secretary of State of the persons death. In order to cancel the deceased’s driver’s license number in the state’s system, take a copy of the death certificate and the driver’s license to your local Secretary of State’s office. The county in which the individual died should also notify the Secretary of State of the individual’s death, but reporting time varies by county. Therefore, to ensure your state’s Secretary of State is notified immediately, you should consider notifying them of the death yourself.
• Contact Experian, Transunion or Equifax after 2 weeks and have them complete a credit report on the deceased’s name to determine if there has been any illegal activity .
• If there is a surviving spouse or other joint account holders, you must notify the company that the deceased’s name needs to be removed from the account. They may require a copy of the death certificate to do this, as well as permission from the survivor, or other authorized account holders.
• Be very careful when sorting through the deceased person’s belongings to ensure no documents that could be used by an identity thief are left inside pockets of clothes being given away to charities or being disposed of in other ways. Check purses and wallets also.
• Make sure that any documents such as bank statements, credit card receipts, tax forms, gas, hydro, cable, phone, cell phone, water and other utility bills are not simply thrown in the garbage - shred them or tear them up into little pieces. Old letters and documents provide a lot of assistance to the identity thief and they do go through garbage or steal the entire garbage bag and examine the contents.
• Check with the United States Postal Service http://www.usps.com/ and make sure that no one has re-directed the deceased’s mail.
• Insist that all showings/viewings of empty real estate properties are accompanied. Following a death, identity thieve’s have been known to organize viewings of empty properties with real estate agents specifically to steal or collect mail.
• Other organizations that you will need to notify; insurance companies (health, auto, home, boat, life etc), Veteran’s Administration if the deceased was a member of the Military, Immigration if the deceased was not a U.S. citizen, any professional agency like the bar association, medical (doctor) association, pipefitters association, police association, nurses association etc.
• Make sure that any automobile, boat, ATV, motorcycle, aircraft, snowmobile etc. are all transferred to the new owner.

Protect your identity.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.