Data Brokers
Data Broker Opt-Out for a Deceased Relative: What Works
The short version
People-search profiles do not close when a person dies. Nobody tells the brokers, and the standard opt-out forms verify the listed person by email or phone, so they fail once those accounts are gone. What works is a direct email to each broker's privacy address with the profile URL, a copy of the death certificate or obituary, and your role as executor or next of kin. Do it the same week you add a deceased notice at a credit bureau and report the death to Social Security, because a live profile plus a public obituary is the raw material for obituary scams.
Why a profile outlives the person
A people-search profile is rebuilt continuously from old public records and from other brokers, and none of those sources sends a "this person died" signal. The federal Limited Access Death Master File is restricted to certified subscribers with a fraud-prevention or legal purpose. A listing keeps serving until someone asks the broker to stop.
That is why a search for a parent who died two years ago still returns a full page on Spokeo or TruePeopleSearch. The listing is not evidence of a scam or a breach. It is the default state of an industry that only removes what it is asked to remove, and for a deceased person nobody is around to ask.
The obituary makes it worse. A tribute that names the town, the birth date, the spouse and the children is a fresh public record, and brokers ingest those too. The profile that outlives the person can also seed new profiles for the survivors, which is the same mechanism we cover in why relatives appear in people-search results.
What obituary scammers do with a listing
Two things happen after a death is announced. Fraudsters use the deceased person's identity to open credit and file tax returns, which the New York Division of Consumer Protection calls end-of-life identity theft or "ghosting". And separate crews target the survivors named in the obituary with impersonation calls. A people-search profile supplies the addresses and phone numbers for both.
The Federal Trade Commission warned in June 2023 about imposters who pose as funeral home staff and press grieving families for immediate payment. The New York alert, issued June 3, 2026, says scammers "pull information and context clues from obituaries coupled with information on the dark web to steal identities."
Older adults carry the largest share of the damage. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center 2025 report breaks reported losses down by age, and the over-60 group reported the most of any bracket, about 37 percent of the total.
| Age of complainant | Complaints in 2025 | Reported losses |
|---|---|---|
| 30 to 39 | 153,293 | $1.7 billion |
| 40 to 49 | 167,066 | $2.96 billion |
| 50 to 59 | 124,820 | $3.7 billion |
| 60 and over | 201,266 | $7.75 billion |
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report. Losses for the over-60 group rose 59 percent from 2024. Figures are self-reported complaints, so real losses are higher.
There is a third, stranger abuse. Sophos researchers documented sites that watch search trends for a newly deceased name, publish an AI-expanded fake obituary within hours, and push visitors toward adware and affiliate antivirus subscriptions. One obituary they traced appeared on six sites within 48 hours. Your relative's real profile lends those pages plausibility.
Do these four notifications before the brokers
Brokers are the visible problem, but the credit file is where the money is. Before you email a single people-search site, make sure the death is on record at the places a fraudster would actually use: the credit bureaus, the Social Security Administration, the IRS and the post office. Each is a single action and none requires a lawyer.
- Credit bureaus. Experian and Equifax both state that notifying one bureau places a deceased notice and the other two are informed. Equifax asks for a copy of the death certificate, the person's name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death, a copy of your ID, and court papers proving your authority if you are not the spouse. Experian accepts an online upload or mail.
- Social Security. The funeral director normally reports the death if you give them the Social Security number. If not, call 1-800-772-1213. Reports are accepted by phone or in person only, never online. Experian notes the bureaus do eventually hear from Social Security, but the delay is the window thieves use.
- IRS. The IRS identity theft guide says to send the bureaus a copy of the death certificate, watch the reports, and "avoid putting too much information in an obituary." File the final return when due. If a fraudulent return has already been filed, Form 14039 is the identity theft affidavit and can be filed on behalf of a deceased taxpayer.
- Mail. USPS will forward or stop a deceased person's mail, but only for the appointed executor or administrator, in person, with proof of appointment. A death certificate alone is not enough.
What to send a broker
Every broker request should carry the same pack so you can send it a dozen times without rewriting. You need the exact profile URL, one proof of death, one proof of your relationship or authority, and a one-paragraph request for suppression of the whole profile rather than one record. Redact anything the broker does not need.
Proof of death is a copy of the death certificate or a link to a published obituary. Proof of authority is the letters testamentary or a court appointment if you have one, or a plain statement that you are the spouse, child or next of kin if you do not. Never send the Social Security number to a people-search site. They do not need it to find a profile they already publish, and it is exactly the number you are trying to protect.
Ask for three things in the email: removal of the named profile, suppression of the underlying record so it does not republish, and written confirmation. Keep every reply. The ordinary rules in our guide to opting out on behalf of a family member still apply, with one difference: there is no living person for the broker to verify, so the paperwork replaces the verification click.
Broker by broker: who accepts a death certificate
We checked the opt-out pages and privacy policies of the largest people-search sites in September 2026. None publishes a dedicated deceased-person policy. The practical difference is whether the site lists a privacy address that handles requests outside the form, and whether its policy already allows a representative to act for someone else.
| Site | Normal verification | Route for a deceased person |
|---|---|---|
| Spokeo | Emailed confirmation link | privacy@spokeo.com, listed on its opt-out page; send the URL and proof |
| BeenVerified | Emailed confirmation link | privacy@beenverified.com; its policy accepts authorized agents with a signed letter or power of attorney |
| Intelius, TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, US Search | PeopleConnect suppression tool confirms contact details it holds | Its policy accepts an authorized agent with written authorization; email the privacy contact with proof of death instead |
| Whitepages | Automated phone call to a listed number | No path through the form once the phone is disconnected; use the support route in our guide |
| TruePeopleSearch | Self-service removal, no paywall | Removal form works for any listing; support@truepeoplesearch.com is listed for problems |
Verification behavior from the sites' own opt-out pages and privacy policies, checked September 2026, and RedactZero's dated guides.
Two details are worth knowing. BeenVerified and PeopleConnect frame representative requests around a living consumer's signed authorization, which a deceased person cannot give, so state clearly that you are writing as executor or next of kin and attach the death certificate instead. And a power of attorney ends at death, so do not rely on one you held while the person was alive.
The step-by-step pages for Spokeo, BeenVerified, Whitepages, Intelius and TruePeopleSearch show where each form and contact lives.
Radaris: the site that is no longer there
If your relative had a Radaris profile, check again before you write. In late August 2026 the Superior Court of New Jersey entered a default judgment against Radaris under Daniel's Law, and radaris.com now displays a court-ordered transfer notice from Atlas Data Privacy Corp. Krebs on Security reported on September 16, 2026 that 14 domains were transferred.
Daniel's Law lets police, judges, prosecutors and their families demand removal, with a $1,000 penalty per violation. The judgment does not delete the underlying data, and the same operators ran a network of sister sites, so search the name on the other major sites rather than assuming the profile is gone. Treat any Radaris-branded page that still shows a profile with suspicion.
Why the standard opt-out forms fail
The self-service forms are built to prove that the person asking is the person listed. Spokeo and BeenVerified email a confirmation link to the address you enter. Whitepages places an automated call. PeopleConnect matches contact details it already holds. Each check is reasonable for a living adult and impossible for someone whose phone is disconnected and whose email is closed.
You can sometimes pass the check anyway. If you still control the deceased person's email account or phone number, the ordinary opt-out works and is faster than a manual review, usually within 24 to 72 hours. Be careful about closing those accounts before the opt-outs are done. Once they are gone, every remaining request becomes an email with attachments.
Do not enter your own phone or email as if it were theirs on a form that says it verifies the listed person. Some brokers treat that as a failed verification and deny the request, which is slower than sending the paperwork route in the first place.
California's DROP is not built for this
California's Delete Request and Opt-out Platform lets a resident send one deletion request to more than 500 registered brokers, and registered brokers have had to process those requests since August 1, 2026. Its terms only allow you to help a person who has authorized you to act, and they say nothing about deceased residents. A deceased person cannot authorize anyone.
Use DROP for the living members of the household, because their profiles are what the obituary just refreshed. Use the direct-email route for the person who died. Our California DROP guide covers who qualifies, and the people-search opt-out hub covers the sites that are not registered in California at all.
Cut the marketing mail too
People-search profiles are one list. Direct-mail and telemarketing lists are another, and they keep generating credit offers addressed to the deceased, which are their own theft risk in a shared mailbox. Two cheap actions cover most of it, and both can be done by a relative without court papers.
The ANA's Deceased Do Not Contact list, at dmachoice.org, puts the person's name, address, phone number and email on a suppression file that is distributed to subscribing marketers every month. Registration costs $6 and is open to friends, relatives and caregivers. Separately, ask the credit bureaus about opting the deceased person's file out of prescreened credit offers when you send the death notice.
Keep the obituary from feeding the next profile
The obituary you write is the one new public record you control. Both the IRS and the New York Division of Consumer Protection advise leaving out details that thieves use. That means no exact birth date, no home address, no mother's maiden name, and no full names and cities for the surviving relatives. First names and a year are enough.
If the obituary has already been published with those details, ask the funeral home or newspaper to trim it. Many syndicate to memorial sites, so ask about those too. Then run the survivors' names through a search to see what the announcement has already refreshed. A free exposure scan shows the brokers most likely to list a US adult, and nothing you enter is stored.
What to expect, and when to check again
A manual request takes longer than a verified opt-out. Allow a few weeks, chase once by replying to your original email, and log the date of each confirmation. Then put a reminder in the calendar for three months out, because listings commonly reappear within three to six months as brokers re-ingest records and buy data from each other.
When a profile returns, resend the same pack and reference the earlier confirmation. Most brokers suppress faster the second time because the record already exists in their opt-out system. Survivors should keep their own listings suppressed in the same cycle, since a household is only as private as its most exposed member. The guides library has dated instructions for each site when you need them.
See what the obituary already refreshed
Run a free exposure scan on your own name and email to see which brokers likely list you and whether your address appeared in a breach - no account, nothing stored.
Frequently asked questions
Can I opt a deceased relative out of people-search sites?
Yes, but not through the normal self-service forms. Most opt-out forms verify the listed person by email or phone, which fails once those accounts are closed. Email each broker's privacy address with the profile URL, a copy of the death certificate or obituary, and your role as executor or next of kin.
Which data brokers accept a death certificate?
None of the major sites we checked publishes a dedicated policy for deceased people. In practice Spokeo and BeenVerified list privacy email addresses that handle requests outside the form, and PeopleConnect and BeenVerified accept requests from an authorized representative with written proof. Expect a manual review rather than an instant removal.
Do I have to tell all three credit bureaus about the death?
No. Experian and Equifax both state that notifying one bureau adds a deceased notice to the file and the other two are informed. Send a copy of the death certificate with the person's full name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death, plus proof you are the spouse or the court-appointed representative.
Does the Social Security Administration tell data brokers someone died?
No. The funeral director usually reports the death to Social Security, and the bureaus eventually learn of it, but there is no feed to people-search sites. The federal Limited Access Death Master File is restricted to certified subscribers with a fraud-prevention or legal purpose, so profiles keep serving until someone asks for removal.
Can I use California's DROP platform for a deceased relative?
DROP is not designed for this. Its terms only let you help a person who has authorized you to submit a request, and they do not address deceased residents. Treat DROP as a tool for the living relatives in the household and handle the deceased person's listings by direct email to each broker.
What should I leave out of an obituary?
The New York Division of Consumer Protection and the IRS both advise limiting details thieves can use. Leave out the exact birth date, home address, mother's maiden name, and the full names and cities of surviving relatives. A year of birth, a city and first names of family are enough for a tribute.
What is ghosting or end-of-life identity theft?
It is the use of a deceased person's name, Social Security number and date of birth to open credit cards, take loans or file fraudulent tax returns. The window is the weeks before the death is recorded everywhere, which is why the credit bureau deceased notice and the Social Security report should happen the same week.
How long does a deceased-person removal take, and does it stay gone?
Manual requests usually take longer than the 24 to 72 hours a verified self-service opt-out gets, so allow a few weeks and keep the replies. Because brokers rebuild profiles from public records and each other, re-check the name every few months and re-send the same email pack if a listing returns.
Sources: New York Department of State, Division of Consumer Protection, consumer alert on funeral fraud and end-of-life identity theft (June 3, 2026); Federal Trade Commission, "Imposters prey on families preparing for the funeral of a loved one" (June 15, 2023); FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report; Sophos, "Are Scammers Using AI to Enhance Fake Obituary Sites?"; Experian and Equifax help pages on reporting a relative's death; IRS Identity Theft Guide for Individuals; USA.gov on reporting a death to Social Security; USPS on mail for the deceased; NTIS Limited Access Death Master File certification program; ANA Deceased Do Not Contact registration page; Krebs on Security, "Data Broker Radaris Loses Domains in Privacy Fight" (September 16, 2026) and the court-ordered notice at radaris.com; the opt-out pages and privacy policies of Spokeo, BeenVerified, PeopleConnect and TruePeopleSearch, checked September 2026.