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Tip 8: Protect The Deceased From Identity TheftIt may sound rather odd, but trying to protect the deceased from identity theft can be quite important. If you think about it with the logic of a thief... ...who is likely to have reasonable credit? Who is not going to check his or her credit file often, if ever? Who will not make a complaint to the police? Who might never even realise that their credit has been assumed by another? Correct! The recently deceased will not be checking credit files, spotting unusual transactions or making official complaints. And you will never 'bump' into them in the street. This makes them ideal targets for an identity fraudster. One presumes that to locate these people, identity thieves search local newspapers for details of obituaries, or perhaps alternatively search cemeteries for fresh graves. Either way, they are likely to find out the date of birth of the deceased, possibly some details about the former address - which can be confirmed online or in a telephone directory - and probably some other family details, and they have enough information to get started. If this sounds a little sick to you, then you are not alone. It seems very wrong to us as well. However, the basics of this as a crime were first detailed in the Frederick Forsythe novel, The Day Of The Jackal, where the main charachter uses a similar method - starting with the headstone of a deceased infant - to obtain a genuine UK passport. Of course, the passport was issued genuinely, only it was issued to someone pretending to be someone else. In reality, there are probably tens of thousands of such passports that exist around the world, from many nationalities. They may have been required for criminals 'on the run', money launderers, wives escaping violent husbands, ex-husbands escaping massive divorce settlements, insider stock trading and so on. Many of the opportunities for arranging fake documents like this have been closed in the western world. The book was first published in 1971, before computing power was used to store information and databases made accessing this information much easier. These days, records of births and deaths and stored much more conveniently. None of this makes it any less important to protect the deceased from identity theft. Relatives that have passed away should have their financial affairs closed as efficiently as possible, no matter how unpleasant or upsetting a task this may be. Relevant authorities and local government offices should be informed. Just bear in mind that if someone does impersonate a deceased relative, it will be much harder to sort out the following chaos as they cannot do it themselves.
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