In what is perhaps one of the most disturbing forms of the crime, you must be aware that even your departed loved ones are not immune to Identity Theft.
The accounts of a deceased person remain open and active until the creditors or financial institutions are formally notified of the person's death, or until they receive the information through a periodic update of the Social Security Administration's Death Master File. While the families mourn their loss, the thieves take action. By acting quickly, before the family has time to make the formal notifications and finalize financial affairs, thieves can use the deceased person's identity to change beneficiaries on insurance policies, open, access, or empty bank accounts, claim pensions and assets, and potentially devastate the person's financial estate.
In other variations of this crime, thieves use public record information or forged documents to assume the identity of a deceased person, or that of a deceased infant. By searching genealogy websites, newspaper archives, and even old death certificates, thieves can identify an infant or very young child that would be approximately their same age had he or she lived. The thief may then obtain a copy of the child's birth certificate, which contains the parent's names and mother's maiden name.
Using the birth certificate, he or she may obtain a driver's license and apply for a Social Security number, or request a replacement card if the child was old enough to have been issued one. Additional counterfeit documents are produced or purchased, and the thief completely assumes the identity of the deceased child. Under this identity, he or she may apply for credit cards or loans, open accounts, obtain employment, and any number of other fraudulent activities.
Examples of Real Life Incidents of Identity Theft of the Deceased
Case #1 - On September 29, 2001, a Washington Post article reported that a man held in Great Britain, suspected of training four of the terrorists who hijacked the airliners on September 11, used the Social Security number of a New Jersey woman who died in 1991.
Case #2 - NBC News aired a story about a Georgia woman who scanned obituaries and then used an Internet search company to obtain Social Security and financial information on 80 recently deceased persons from five states. She sold this information to other people with bad credit, for as much as $600 per name. The various purchasers of this information then listed the deceased persons as co-signers on approximately 100 auto loans at an Atlanta car dealership.
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