Obituaries can be a scammer's cheat sheet: Names of spouses, children, employers, and hometowns can help criminals build convincing stories.
AI makes the research much faster: Scammers can use AI to identify potential victims and create highly-personalized pitches.
Create a family verification rule: After a death, agree that unexpected requests involving money get checked with another family member before anyone pays.
A grieving widow reportedly lost more than $7,000 after scammers told her they'd helped her late husband cover up tax evasion.
What made the scheme particularly disturbing was how the criminals found their target via her husband's public obituary.
Clayton LiaBraaten, a spokesperson for caller ID and fraud-prevention company Truecaller, told USA Today that the woman's son contacted the company after discovering what happened. According to LiaBraaten, scammers are using artificial intelligence to scour obituaries for potential victims.
The scammers allegedly told the widow that they had worked with her husband to conceal tax evasion and that she needed to pay $7,000 to protect what remained of her inheritance. By the time her family realized it was a scam, the money had been paid.
Your obituary can reveal a lot
An obituary may include a surviving spouse's full name, children and grandchildren, hometown, former employers, schools, military service, and even a church or other organizations.
Jennifer Szakaly, founder and CEO of Caregiving Corner, told Moneywise that scammers can combine those details with information from social media and other public sources to make their story more believable.
AI can then be used to make that process much faster, helping criminals identify victims and develop personalized scam scripts.
Pro tip: You don't have to strip an obituary of meaningful family information. But stop and consider if you need to include things like full names, specific hometowns, employers, schools, and other identifying details. It’s amazing how quickly all of this info can create a fairly detailed family profile that a criminal can use.
Warn the surviving spouse before the calls arrive
One of the simplest precautions may be having a conversation with a surviving spouse before or immediately after an obituary goes online.
It’s sad that this is where we are, but you may need to warn them that callers may claim their spouse left behind a debt, tax problem, insurance issue, or unpaid account.
Most importantly, tell them that a caller knowing their spouse's name, former employer, or children's names, doesn't prove they're legitimate.
That's especially important with supposed tax problems. The IRS says unexpected contacts that rush or threaten you, demand immediate payment or request personal or financial information are BIG scam warning signs. The agency generally makes initial contact through the U.S. mail rather than an unexpected phone call demanding money.
Pro tip: Don't call a number provided by the person demanding money. Find the organization's official number independently and make the call yourself.
Create a family 'second set of eyes' rule
Grieving families may already be dealing with bank accounts, insurance, funeral expenses, bills, and estate issues. That can make an unfamiliar financial request seem more plausible, especially when you’re in the grieving process and maybe not thinking clearly.
Consider establishing a temporary family rule: No unexpected payment gets made without another family member or trusted adviser reviewing it first.
Also, be suspicious of anyone who tells you not to discuss the situation with your children, attorney, bank, or financial adviser. That’s a big red flag.
If you've already paid, move quickly
If money has already been sent, don't wait.
Contact your bank or payment provider immediately and ask whether the transaction can be stopped or reversed. For IRS-related scams, the agency recommends stopping contact with the scammer and reporting the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
The bigger lesson is uncomfortable but important. Someone knowing intimate details about your family used to make a phone call sound credible. In the age of AI and searchable public records, it may simply mean the scammer did a little bit of homework.