Inheritance scams are a growing form of fraud that targets people during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Scammers exploit public probate records, obituaries, and data broker profiles to reach grieving families with convincing schemes designed to steal money and personal information. Over $3 billion is lost annually to probate-related fraud alone, and the tactics are becoming more sophisticated every year. Here is what you need to know to protect yourself and your loved ones.
How Inheritance Scams Work
Inheritance scams are a type of advance-fee fraud. The basic structure is simple: a scammer contacts you claiming you are entitled to a large sum of money from an estate, then asks you to pay upfront fees before you can receive it. The promised inheritance never arrives, and the fees keep escalating until you stop paying. But within that framework, scammers use several distinct approaches.
The Fake Executor or Attorney Scam
You receive an email or letter from someone claiming to be a lawyer or estate executor, often in another country. They say a wealthy individual has died with no known heirs, and through their research, they have identified you as a possible distant relative. To claim your share of the estate, you just need to pay legal fees, processing charges, or taxes upfront. Once you pay, they invent new fees. This cycle continues until you realize the inheritance does not exist.
The Probate Record Exploitation Scam
This variation is particularly insidious because it targets real heirs of real estates. Scammers systematically monitor public probate filings, which contain names, addresses, and asset details of both the deceased and their beneficiaries. Within weeks of a probate filing, fraudsters pose as attorneys, debt collectors, or estate service providers, demanding immediate payment of fabricated fees, outstanding debts, or administrative charges related to the actual estate.
The Obituary-Based Targeting Scam
Scammers scour online obituaries to identify recently bereaved families. They then contact surviving family members claiming the deceased owed money, had unpaid debts, or had unclaimed assets that require a fee to release. The emotional vulnerability of grieving individuals makes them more susceptible to these high-pressure tactics.
The Inheritance Advance Scam
Legitimate heirs who are waiting for a probate process to conclude may be approached by companies offering to advance their inheritance for a fee. While some inheritance advance companies are legitimate, scammers in this space charge exorbitant hidden fees, misrepresent terms, or simply take the money and disappear.
Warning: Scammers Use Real Information to Seem Legitimate
Modern inheritance scammers do not send generic emails to random addresses. They combine data from probate court records, obituaries, data broker profiles, and social media to craft highly personalized messages that reference real names, real estates, and real legal proceedings. This specificity makes the scam far more convincing and harder to identify at first glance.
How Scammers Find Their Targets
Understanding how scammers identify and research their victims is key to protecting yourself.
- Public probate records: Probate filings are part of the public record and are often accessible through online court databases. Scammers scrape these records in bulk to build target lists of families handling estates.
- Obituaries: Online obituaries provide names of surviving family members, locations, and even details about the deceased person's life that scammers can use to craft convincing stories.
- Data brokers: People-search sites and data brokers compile detailed personal profiles that include names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, family connections, and estimated net worth. Scammers purchase this information to supplement what they find in public records.
- Social media: Public social media profiles reveal family relationships, life events, and emotional states that help scammers time their approach and personalize their messages.
- Genealogy websites: Scammers use genealogy databases to fabricate connections between victims and fictitious deceased individuals, making the fake inheritance story more believable.
Who Is Most at Risk
While anyone can be targeted by an inheritance scam, certain groups face elevated risk:
- Elderly adults: Older individuals are disproportionately targeted due to perceived trust, potential social isolation, and sometimes less familiarity with digital scam tactics.
- Grieving family members: People who have recently lost a loved one are emotionally vulnerable and may not scrutinize communications as carefully as they normally would.
- Legitimate heirs in probate: Real beneficiaries of estates in probate are especially vulnerable because they are actually expecting inheritance-related communications, making fraudulent outreach harder to distinguish from legitimate correspondence.
- People with extensive data broker exposure: Individuals whose personal information is widely available on data broker sites provide scammers with the raw material needed to craft targeted, convincing scams.
Red Flags That Signal an Inheritance Scam
Watch for these warning signs in any inheritance-related communication:
- Unsolicited contact: You receive an unexpected email, letter, or call about an inheritance from someone you have never met or a relative you have never heard of.
- Upfront fees required: You are asked to pay taxes, legal fees, processing charges, or any other costs before receiving the inheritance. Legitimate estates cover these costs from the estate itself.
- Free email addresses: The supposed attorney or executor contacts you from a Gmail, Yahoo, or other free email account rather than a professional domain.
- Urgency and secrecy: You are pressured to act quickly or told to keep the matter confidential.
- Unusual payment methods: You are asked to pay via wire transfer, cryptocurrency, gift cards, or other methods that are difficult to trace or reverse.
- Too-good-to-be-true amounts: The promised inheritance is unrealistically large, often millions of dollars from a complete stranger.
- Escalating fees: After paying one fee, new charges keep appearing for taxes, customs, insurance, or other fabricated expenses.
What Legitimate Estate Communications Look Like
Real executors and estate attorneys will never ask you to pay money to receive an inheritance. Legitimate communications come from verifiable law firms with professional email domains, reference specific case numbers you can confirm with the court, and do not pressure you to act immediately. If you are genuinely named in a will, the probate court in the relevant jurisdiction will have records you can verify independently.
How to Protect Yourself and Your Family
Taking proactive steps can significantly reduce your risk of falling victim to inheritance scams.
Reduce Your Data Broker Exposure
Scammers rely on data broker profiles to research and target victims. Removing your personal information from these sites makes it significantly harder for fraudsters to find you, contact you, and craft convincing personalized scams. PrivacyOn removes your data from over 100 data broker sites and continuously monitors for re-listing, cutting off a key source of information that scammers depend on.
Protect Elderly Family Members
If you have older relatives, have an open conversation about inheritance scams. Help them understand the warning signs, and consider enrolling them in a service like PrivacyOn's family plan, which covers up to 5 people, to reduce their exposure on data broker sites and provide dark web monitoring for compromised personal information.
Verify All Estate Communications Independently
Never rely on contact information provided in a suspicious communication. Look up the law firm, court, or executor independently. Call the probate court directly to verify any claims about an estate. Consult your own attorney before responding to any unexpected inheritance notification.
Lock Down Your Online Presence
- Set social media profiles to private, especially during times of bereavement
- Be cautious about what family and financial details you share online
- Consider limiting the personal information included in online obituaries
- Regularly monitor your credit reports and financial accounts for unauthorized activity
Report Suspected Scams
If you receive a suspicious inheritance communication, report it to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov, your state attorney general's office, and local law enforcement. Reporting helps authorities track and shut down these operations.
What to Do If You Have Already Been Targeted
If you have already responded to or paid money in a suspected inheritance scam, take these steps immediately:
- Stop all communication with the scammer
- Contact your bank or payment provider to attempt to reverse any transactions
- File a report with the FTC and your local police department
- Place a fraud alert on your credit reports with all three bureaus
- Monitor your accounts closely for signs of identity theft
Inheritance scams prey on trust, grief, and the natural desire for financial security. By understanding how these schemes work, reducing your personal data exposure, and knowing the warning signs, you can protect yourself and your family from becoming victims. The less personal information scammers can find about you online, the harder it is for them to target you with a convincing scheme.