There really is no line that criminals won't cross when they're about to commit a crime. Even when it comes to stealing from the deceased. They're still willing to go after that person and commit fraud using their identity. Identity theft of deceased persons is a wretched crime, so it helps to know some things in advance in order to help prevent this from happening to your loved ones.

How The Deceased Have Their Identities Stolen

Many criminals will look in the newspaper for obituaries or sometimes even online to find records of recently deceased individuals. They can also look at genealogy websites in order to find evidence that someone has passed away. When they get information such as the person's name, address, birthday, another personally identifiable information, the identity thief may be able to obtain new loans, credit cards, or social security cards by using the name of the recently deceased person.

How To Prevent It

One good way to make sure that this does not occur to someone you love is to leave out much of the personally identifiable information from their obituary. There's really no reason for a person's birthday to be in the obituary, let alone their address. In fact, all information that is not absolutely necessary to post in an obituary should not be placed there. Information such as the maiden name of the spouse can be used for security purposes in order to access the deceased's bank information. It's a really sad state of affairs when you have to worry about this kind of thing while dealing with the loss of a loved one.

You should immediately close all bank accounts, credit card accounts, life insurance policies, and other financial accounts as soon as the person passes away. It's advised to plan ahead and have this information ready in an easy-to-find place in the unfortunate event that a person passes. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

You may also want to contact the major credit bureaus in order to let them know that the person has passed away, as well as getting a copy of their credit report. Speaking with an attorney is also advisable to make sure that you haven't forgotten about anything. You should contact the Social Security Administration as soon as possible. You definitely don't want a criminal to open up a brand-new accounts in the deceased's name and begin wracking up transactions.

Don't Let Identity Theft Happen To Your Loved Ones

While it hurts to think about these things, it's still extremely important. These identity thieves are absolute scum, and anyone who is caught doing this type of thing should definitely be sentenced to the fullest extent of the law, in my opinion. Preparation is really key to identity theft prevention, even though it's not pleasant to think about. Be prepared, and when unfortunate events happen, you won't be in worse shape than you need to be.