'When a Family Member Dies'

When a Family Member Dies

RiverQueen from Joisey, on the Continent -

When someone in your family dies, make sure that you contact EVERY government agency possible to inform them of their death and to send back the SSN card and a Death Certificate to ensure that the information is taken off the registers.

My uncle died 2 years ago and one of the government parties sent a letter to him (it came to me because I was executrix) asking for donations. Now most people would just toss that letter but I sent it back with a note saying that he had died and please take him off any of your mailing lists.

This made me think of other things and other mailing lists that they may be on. So to prevent people from going through the obituaries in the paper and getting information on these people to create a "new identity" for themselves make sure you touch every base.

Comment #1 shaun from nova scotia -

Thanks for the tip. My grandma recently died. I'm going to talk to my father and make sure he does the same. I never really thought about it until i saw this, so thank you!

Comment #2 itsmrsjonesy from * -

I think that is very good advice. when we lose a loved one things like this can be overlooked in our grief, or something that one might not even think to do anyway. thanks for posting this advice.

Comment #3 Milly from Wisconsin -

Good advice. Alls it takes is for a dishonest court house worker getting ahold of the death cert and taking over the persons identity.

Comment #4 PATRICK from HOUSTON, TEXAS -

A couple of months ago a couple got arrested here for going through the grave yards and assuming deceased peoples identities. They would then use the peoples credit to buy high dollar items. Because there was nobody to catch it they got away with it for close to ten years!! The government believes the total thief to be around two million dollars.

Comment #5 Adam (63.176.159.24) - Fri Oct 17 12:03:42 2008

That is some great advice.. Do you have any tips one how people can help prevent or detect identity theft of the ones who are still living? It seems to be a big issue in the Us.

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