Obituary Safety Tips: How to Write an Obituary Without Enabling Identity Theft

An obituary is a tribute. It is also, to organized cybercriminals, a data-harvesting document that publishes much of what they need to steal a dead person's identity — and they scan funeral home websites and newspaper death notices systematically to find it.

Postmortem identity theft — sometimes called "ghosting" — was estimated in a 2012 study at nearly 2.5 million deceased identities misused annually; that was not an obituary-specific or current count. Criminals use details from obituaries to open credit cards, apply for loans, file fraudulent tax returns, and drain bank accounts, sometimes for years before anyone notices. The deceased cannot dispute charges. And the family, already in grief, inherits the cleanup.

What to Never Include in an Obituary

Exact date of birth. A full birth date (month, day, year) combined with a full name is the foundation of identity theft. Use the birth year alone ("born in 1948") or omit it entirely. The people who loved the person already know when they were born.

Mother's maiden name. This is a standard security question for banking, insurance, and government accounts. Including it in an obituary hands it directly to anyone who reads the notice.

Home address. Publishing the deceased's residential address tells burglars exactly which house will be empty during the funeral. This is not theoretical — law enforcement agencies across the US have documented rings that target homes during published funeral times. Use a city and state only ("of Portland, Oregon").

Exact funeral date, time, and location together. If you must publish funeral details, do so through a private communication channel (family email, group text, funeral home's password-protected page) rather than a public obituary. If public posting is unavoidable, do not simultaneously publish the home address — one or the other, never both.

Social Security number, even partially. This should be obvious but partial SSNs have appeared in obituaries drafted under extreme cognitive duress.

What You Can Safely Include

A meaningful obituary does not require dangerous details. Focus on:

• The person's full name (first, middle initial, last) and age at death
• City and state of residence (no street address)
• Profession, military service, or community involvement
• Surviving family members by first name and relationship — not full names with maiden names
• A brief description of their character, passions, or legacy
• Memorial donation suggestions in lieu of flowers (name the organization, not a personal bank account)
• A contact email or funeral home phone number for condolences

Protecting the Home During Services

If funeral details must be public, take these precautions:

Have someone stay at the house during the service. A trusted neighbor, friend, or hired house-sitter physically present at the home eliminates the burglary window entirely.

Use timed lights and visible security. Smart plugs that turn lights on and off, a visible doorbell camera, and a car parked in the driveway all signal occupancy.

Do not post real-time funeral photos on social media. Geotagged photos announcing "at First Baptist Church" confirm to anyone watching that the home is empty right now.

Lock medications and valuables. If the home was a caregiving site, controlled substances (opioids, sedatives) may still be present. Secure or dispose of them before the service — they are a secondary target for break-ins.

After the Death: Financial Identity Protection

Within the first week, take these steps to prevent ghosting:

Notify the three credit bureaus. Request a "deceased alert" on the credit files at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This flags any new credit applications using the deceased's Social Security number.

Notify the Social Security Administration. Report the death to SSA (the funeral home may do this automatically, but verify). This prevents the SSN from being used for employment fraud or benefits claims.

For suspected tax-related identity theft, follow the IRS's instructions. Form 14039 (Identity Theft Affidavit) can be filed on behalf of a deceased person when appropriate; it is not the form for every kind of identity theft.

Monitor the deceased's credit reports for at least 12 months. Free annual reports from AnnualCreditReport.com work even for deceased individuals when requested by the executor.

The Anticipatory Grief toolkit includes a secure obituary template and a postmortem identity protection checklist that walks through each of these steps in order.