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Home » Computers And Internet Articles » Identity Theft Even After You Die

Identity Theft, Even After You Die

Believe it or not identity theft has moved to the dead. It is compounding more and more family's grief because con artists are digging up identities of the deceased.

The identity of someone who has died is becoming an irresistible target to thieves and the death helps buy them time before they are likely to get caught.

The scam artists search the obituaries where they find valuable information that gives them a jump start at identity theft. Lengthy obituary and death notices gives crooks more valuable information that they use to do more damage.

Identity theft crimes involving the deceased are a dark, shady side of the booming identity theft crime. Although the deceased don't have to be concerned with keeping their credit rating good, the emotional burden of the crimes cause undue stress on the family.

The spouse of a deceased person can especially have serious problems if the accounts affected are joint accounts.

Sometimes these scammers are not just out to take the money and run. They want someone else's identity for the long term to escape immigration or legal problems. They assume the identity of a deceased person and could live for years under that name before anyone finds out.

Here are a few things that you can do to help minimize the possibility of identity theft of a deceased family member.

Tone down the news obituary in the paper by not giving too much information.

Notify all 3 credit reporting agencies of the deceased and have them put a "deceased" flag alert on the account.

Equifax 888-766-0008

Trans Union 800-680-7289

Experian 888-397-3742

Contact the Social Security Administration direct and let them know about the death and have them flag the person's social security number as "inactive".

If you discover signs of identity theft or any type of fraud from a deceased relative, notify the police immediately and file a report. This police report will be helpful in dealing with financial institutions and clearing up things later.

Then call any one of the major credit reporting agencies and they can give you more guidance about where to go from there.

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is an emotional experience laden with stress and grief. Taking a few precautions from the beginning of their death will hopefully lead to preventing identity theft of your loved one and keeping their identity their own.

Copyright © 2005 Spyware-Information.com. All Rights Reserved.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Secret Strategies Of The Gurus: Guru 1 - Bill Gates As A Small Business Entrepreneur

Introduction:

Strategies are strategies. Dismiss for a moment from your mind what some people are saying about Bill Gates's offensive practices he used to transform himself from a small business entrepreneur to a titan in the business world. There are yet honest-to-goodness strategies we can glean from his sleeves. We can study, learn from them and possibly apply them in our own home based business. Upon this premise that this article was written.

Strategy of Bill Gates - Have a Vision:

At the outset, I will lay down the results of my research on one secret strategy of Bill Gates. He used the same strategy to jump-start his small business to today's business behemoth. Based on my research, the strategy of Bill Gates is grounded upon the following:

"Have a VISION of what you want to achieve and hold on to that vision come wrath or high water."

His vision was:

"A Personal Computer on every desk."

By the way, I didn't want to use the grammatically correct expression "come hell or high water" - for personal reason - so excuse my grammatical preference. Anyway, let's go back to our subject. When you have a vision, you can make the impossible possible.

Almost everybody is familiar about how once upon a time the small business entrepreneur Bill Gates secured mighty IBM's contract to supply the latter's operating system. When he was negotiating with the IBM people, he had no operating system as yet. He was able to buy a Disk Operating System or DOS for $50 thousand. In the end, he got the contract. Why?

Bill Gates was guided by his vision - that every desk all over the world should have a computer on it. This vision enabled him to provide IBM with a DOS operating system and have control over it including to whom he wanted it sold to.

Beginning Entrepreneur:

Before he became an entrepreneur, Bill Gates had nurtured the vision that software will one day rule the world. During high school he spent many late nights with friend Paul Allen tinkering with the school's computer system.

He dropped out of college after completing his junior year at Harvard. Instead, he and his bosom friend Paul Allen set up a small business - a software company - in far away New Mexico. This move was in accordance with his vision.

His vision became clearer as he moved from a total newbie to one with a small business to keep. His vision was clothed in clearer terms, as he negotiated the DOS deal with IBM.

Better late than never:

Bill Gates's company ultimately became the leader in the software arena. During the first half of the 1990's - 1993 to be exact - he was among the last of the software titans to acknowledge the future significance of the Internet.

But once he did realize that indeed Internet was the wave of the future, he had the tenacity to reshape his vision. His vision retained its old flavor - that is, software dominance in commerce, industry and in every field. It was rehashed in his own words as follows:

"In the years ahead, the Internet will have an even more profound effect on the way we work, live and learn ... this technology will be one of the key cultural and economic forces of the early 21st century."

At this moment in time, Bill Gates is guided by the vision that the Internet is the wave of the present and the foreseeable future.

Lessons Learned:

You can learn from Bill Gates by having your own vision for your small business. Lay down this vision in your mind. Then put it into writing. Read your vision everyday while at work in your small corner of the house. Your vision could be as short-term as the following:

"To make my web site land within the top five of Google when people search for the keywords 'home based business,'" or

"$200,000 earning this year from Google Adsense,"or

"To enrich the content of my web site using the theme 'scrap book making.'"

Do not limit yourself to short-term vision. Aim for the long-term. A five to ten years period would suffice. Technology may change but your vision will essentially be the same. You may refine it if deemed necessary, like incorporating the effect of technological changes - as Bill Gates did.

Your Share of the Pie:

Everybody - from Bill Gates down to your netpreneur friend - has recognized the tremendous role of the Internet in business developments. Some of the more immediate pressing concerns you should consider at this stage concerning your home based business are the following:

- General preference for digital transactions by clients. For example, as a beginning Internet entrepreneur you should meet your clients' demands who favor the use of online payment system.

At this juncture, I would like to refer you to my web site at InternetMarketingLearningCenter.com which offers free learning stuff on Internet marketing and home based business. One category being tackled in the web site is the online payment system. You may read online news and keep yourself abreast of the best software companion for your small business.

- Choose products that are preferred by people at this time when the Internet is dominating people's lives. It has been determined that information products and web shopping are favored by most consumers. Information products include your very own ebooks and "how-to" manuals.

- Make it your aim that your products are cheap, very useful, and the best among the rest of competing products. This applies most especially to shopping products. For your own digital products, you have the advantage of pricing them according to your own estimation.

You as the author of your own digital product determines the price level. It is no wonder why gurus like Jay Abraham, Jim Daniels and the late Corey Rudl have become so wealthy from selling their own digital pieces.

As for these three, they will be among the titans that we will tackle in future issues of this series.