It’s a terrible term, isn’t it? It’s an even worse concept.
Because obituaries are so often online these days, identify thieves are using information taken from those obituaries to try to steal assets after someone has died, while the family is grieving and distracted. They use the very detailed information often found in obituaries (full name, names of spouse and children, birth and death dates, etc.) to find the information they need to hack into accounts – and since we are living more and more of our lives online, they can often cause significant damage once they’re in.
Unfortunately, the only real solution is to limit what goes into the obituary that is posted online, or to make it password-protected with the password given only to friends and family.
We live in an increasingly connected world. While this can be a wonderful thing, we must remain vigilant for when it’s not.
