09/19/2026
Every year, 2.5 million deceased Americans have their identities stolen, and the obituary section is one of the easiest places to find the details.
Here's why this works so well for criminals.
A death notice can publish the exact facts a bank uses to prove identity. Exact date of birth. Place of birth. Middle name. Maiden name. Mother's maiden name.
These are common bank security questions, published voluntarily, in a public notice meant to honor someone's life.
The location details make it worse. Home address. Funeral date and time. Full names of children. Employer and job history. School names. A funeral notice tells a burglar the house is empty, on a specific date, at a specific time.
Here's why it works so well for the criminals doing this.
Nobody is watching. The victim can't check their own credit report. Records lag, since it takes weeks for a death to reach every financial institution's files. Calls land mid grief, when fake collectors know families are least likely to push back.
And the rest is cheap. Addresses and personal details sell online for almost nothing once they're public.
Here's the better approach.
Keep it simple and respectful. Skip birth dates and addresses entirely. Consider listing just the city or town instead of a full address. Let immediate family share sensitive details privately with people who actually need them. Focus on the life that was lived, not the personal data that identifies it.
An obituary is a public record. You can honor someone completely without publishing their identity alongside their memory.
Publish the life. Not the paperwork.
