Identity Theft and the Dead

I remember explaining to a group of people one time that “your credit does not stop just because you died.”  There were a number of very shocked people in that room.  I was responding to a question from a woman whose husband had passed away two years earlier.  She was upset because she was receiving phone calls from collection agencies about debts that were created after her husband had passed.

Many people believe that once you die all of your accounts just disappear.  They don’t realize the steps needed to shut down both the accounts and the identity. To close the accounts you need to send a copy of the death certificate and a letter explaining the situation to each of the creditors.  This also includes those credit accounts that are open but have a zero balance.  The next step is to send a photocopy of the death certificate to the three Credit Reporting Agencies so they will mark the file as deceased.

To shut down some of the governmental records you need to send the death certificate to the Social Security Administration. Most of the time this step is only used by the surviving spouse to collect the survivor benefit.

Now we have a study from ID Analytics that shows how 2.5 million deceased people have had their identities used for fraud and work purposes. Does this really surprise anyone? In 2004 there was a report that in one State, during a one month period, 140 deceased people applied for drivers licenses. 

There are numerous stories of persons that have had their identity taken and used after their death.  Many of those stories come from the surviving family who are dealing with the fallout of the imposters actions.  It is in many ways almost as painful for families as the loss of the loved one. Time does not ease the pain of these issues, it cause them to multiply.  With the each fraudulent account there is a possibility of dealing with as many as 4 collection agencies that are involved.

One more aspect of the crime of identity theft and the deceased is that it is not unheard of to find that the perpetrator is from the deceased’s own family or circle of friends. There are many different solutions to the problem of identity theft.  None of the solutions are all encompassing or can be put in place as simply or easily as most of us would like.  This will be a long time fixing the problems and then fixing the fixes.