Identity theft is very common in today's world. It is very easy for almost anyone to get all kinds of information about you either on the
Internet, by calling and tricking you into disclosing information, or even from mail you might leave in your vehicle or home. A different kind of identity theft has been going on for many, many decades.
This is postmortem identity theft. That's right, people can steal your identity even after you die. This can have disastrous consequences on your surviving family members when and if it is discovered.
How could something like this happen at all? Well, all it takes is an identity thief to read the obituaries and find someone who matches either what they look like or what their clients are looking for.
Once you have a name and birthday, all you have to do is go to city hall and get a death certificate. Social security numbers actually remain valid for a number of years after death due to paperwork pileup and overall population. This enables the use of that social security number for a long time with no worries.
The problems with postmortem identity theft arise when creditors notice this person is massing a lot of debt. There will be a lot of confusion between family members and creditors as they try to sort this all out.
If there are inheritances, the creditors may try to get paid from that lump of money before any family members receive their share. This is very unfair but that's exactly what the identity thief wants.
By the time all this has happened, odds are the thief has moved on to another victim. To protect yourself, make sure to notify the Social Security Administration as well as all creditors and consumer reporting companies.
If they know this person is deceased, they won't issue credit cards and notify you immediately if that social security number gets used.
Identity Theft Related Articles
Medical identity theft is often overlooked on television and newspapers but is growing extremely rapidly. People are unable to get medical coverage easily and desperate times can drive many people to take very desperate measures.
Unless you have a medical condition, you could keep your insurance card in your wallet or purse and rarely ever use it. You might not even notice if it happened to disappear.
When medical identity theft occurs, you may never even know it happened until it's way too late. The complications it can cause can threaten the life of you or your loved ones.
Blood types can be changed, diagnoses you never actually got can be put into your records and much more very scary things could happen.
Imagine getting into an accident and losing a lot of blood not realizing an identity theft had occurred and now your records show your blood type as A instead of B.
If you get a pint of the wrong type, serious problems or death may occur. You also may end up with extremely high medical bills. If someone bills your insurance for a broken leg, you may be responsible for much of the bill.
Repairing medical identity theft errors can be a very long and complicated process. If someone got treatment somewhere, that information may be shared all around the country.
Even if you change it, it could take a very long time to correct everywhere and that puts you at great risk in case of an accident.
To prevent all of this, keep detailed records of your medical bills and insurance statements.