Stealing an identity is not so hard when states provide all a fraudster needs on a death certificate. It has been standard practice in Massachusetts for decades to include Social Security numbers on death certificates. Why? It is a state law. But many would say it is unnecessary information. Afterall, there really isn’t anything you can’t do with a social security number. It certainly opens schemes in any or all government benefits.
It isn’t that hard to get a death certificate when all the information needed to obtain one is in an obituary. Full name of deceased. Address, birthdate, and birthplace of deceased, along with the parents’ names and the fraudster has almost everything it needs. Fill in the rest of the blanks with synthetically made information, and the fraudster has a social security number.
In a recent example, the Boston Globe detailed the efforts of Suzy Enos, who believes scammers obtained her late sister’s Social Security number from her death certificate in the first step of an elaborate attempt to loot her sister’s assets. Enos went to battle online with the scammers and ultimately succeeded in protecting most of her sister’s assets. Sounds like it became a fulltime job. Enos singles out the ready availability of her sister’s Social Security number as a probably key to the scams she battled, from cell phone contracts to retirement savings.
Shout out to Suzy. As she battles the fraud perpetuated by a public release of the most important personal identifying information, Massachusetts politicians still argue whether unnecessarily publicizing the Social Security number on a death certificate is necessary.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Why does Massachusetts still put Social Security numbers on death certificates?” published by the Boston Globe on September 2, 2024.
Including Social Security numbers on death certificates, which has been standard practice in Massachusetts for decades, gives fraudsters easy access to a key piece of personal information they can use in their scams, officials say. State officials worried about fraud are calling for changes to the state law which mandates that publicly available death certificates include the deceased person’s Social Security number.
Including Social Security numbers on death certificates, which has been standard practice in Massachusetts for decades, gives fraudsters easy access to a key piece of personal information they can use in their scams, officials say. In a recent example, the Globe last month detailed the efforts of Suzy Enos, who believes scammers obtained her late sister’s Social Security number from her death certificate in the first step of an elaborate attempt to loot her sister’s assets.
