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(Updated: 12:58pm)
IT’S NOT A situation any of us want to think about, but considering that more of us are creating online accounts, it’s likely that you will face a situation where someone will pass away and leave their digital accounts active.
If that happens, here’s what you need to know.
Can you access a deceased person’s accounts?
As a rule, most social media sites are reluctant to allow anyone, even themselves, to touch the account of anyone without that person’s permission, even if they’re deceased. No service allows you to obtain a person’s password and username to enter their accounts and it brings some complications for families who feel digital assets hold the same value as physical assets.
While there are some exceptions (For example, Microsoft will release all Outlook.com contents via a data DVD), the best you could hope for is to delete or memorialise a person’s account.
The time it takes to remove or deactivate an account varies with the company itself. Some are able to do it immediately while others, like Google, take longer.
What do I need to deactivate a profile: Proof that you’re related to them, and the deceased person’s birth certificate or death certificate.
While immediate family members can remove a person’s Facebook page, you can turn their page into a memorial page. That means that current friends can still post status updates on that page, and tag that person in photos.
Once it’s a memorial page, it cannot be changed back into a regular Facebook account.
What do I need to deactivate a profile: The deceased person’s @username, the deceased person’s death certificate, a valid ID, and a signed statement saying what action you wish to be carried out.
Upon request, Twitter will also remove images or videos of the deceased person in certain circumstances. Mainly accidents from when critical injury occurs to the moments before or after death.
What do I need to deactivate a profile: Deceased person’s death certificate, Gmail/Google username of the deceased user, your full name, physical and email address, the full header and email from the account you want deactivated.
Probably the messiest one to deal with, considering the number of accounts that would need to be deactivated, Google splits up its deactivation into two parts.
The first is supplying the above documents, which Google will review and decide whether you will proceed to part two. This part usually involves obtaining additional material like legal documents.
Update: There is another method that will allow you to control what happens to your data should you pass away.
Inactive Account Manager allows you to choose to have your data deleted if it’s left inactive over a number of months, and select trusted contacts (wife/husband, family, friends, etc.) to receive data from some or all Google services. Thanks to David Vaughan for the tip.
What do I need to deactivate a profile: Deceased person’s name and relationship, link to their profile, company they worked for and email address.
Unique compared to the other sites here in that you don’t need a death certificate for an account to be taken down.
Instead, anyone reporting the passing of a member is required to fill out an online form first, and provide basic details about the member. Once it’s completed, the site reviews the request and will be in touch about the next steps.
What do I need to deactivate a profile: Info about the account, deceased person’s death certificate, proof of ID and relationship with deceased person.
All users have to contact msrecord@microsoft.com to request a removal. Once that’s done, a review will be processed within 24 business hours (3 working days) and if approved, the account is closed within 48 business hours (6 working days).
As mentioned before, Microsoft will allow you access to all content on Outlook.com via a data DVD, which is delivered to you. It won’t allow you to reset passwords, recover accounts or any other support from your own account.
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Incredible in this day and age people still fall for the ‘African Prince with lotsa money but needs funds to release said money’ scam…come on folks….
maybe loneliness was a factor, this lady seems to have wanted it to real so much
It’s in the nature of the beast !!!
I know it’s tempting to laugh at others’ naïvety, but when you think about the outcome it’s little different to all those pensioners who get duped by fake bank employees, rogue property dealers and cowboy tradesmen. Another lonely, emotionally vulnerable person has been left in financial ruin while some keyboard-savvy lowlife is laughing as he wallows in his loot.
Some very clever scammers out there.
A friend of mine met an American woman online who spun a terrific yarn about wanting to come to Ireland to study Irish folklore. Really convincing. Communicated with her for ages, she was tying up loose ends and moving lock, stock and barrel to Dublin where she was enrolled in UCD.
Three times I had to stop him from forwarding money to her, we almost fell out over this fictitious person.
My argument:
‘If as you say she ‘Truly loves you’ then she will find a way to make it here’
Eventually the penny dropped when she contacted him from Amsterdam airport asking him to forward a few thousand euros to facilitate her claim that she was financially self sufficient entering the EU.
She is a fool & a gold digger – No sympathy 4 her at all. HA HA HA.
Iv a friend feel for someone living here with friends .. Went home to visit and have medical checks eat as cheaper at home ! She said she had cancer ! .. Needed thousands for treatment .. We convinced him eventually .. Turned out one of her friends was her husband !
Wha?????
Loneliness leaves people very vulnerable
Yeah so does ger wish 4 a ‘luxury’ life.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3887493.stm getting revenge on the scammers
That’s brilliant Peter!
A real pity,but hard to believe ppl fall for this carry on now a days!
People over 60 wouldn’t be as Internet savy as younger people add loneliness to that and you have the perfect victim.
Why does this seem to happen a bit more in the UK. My working theory is that British women are a bit more soppy romantics compared to savvy sceptical and can’t take a complement Irish women.
i know some irish women who’d bite the head off you for complementing them
Fred it happens here too. The victims keep it quiet. wouldn’t you?
I do NOT look lovely today!!!!!
haha thats it Deborah on the button!
Mark Hamilton…better known as Luke Skywalkerton
Poor silly woman
It’s the lowest of the low.Preying on that poor woman’s emotions.
I’ve got 20 million resting in my account but I need 50 grand to release it, can anyone help me? I’m also a prince, good looking and single…
I hope that isn’t her profile picture on the dating site.
Yes, I see the Met Police caption perfectly clear now.
A prominent Irish businessman, highly experienced, was defrauded or scammed of almost 750k sterling to get the ex Emperor of Angola’s uncut diamonds worth 400 million sterling from a Safe Deposit box in Amsterdam.
People can be conned by greed, by pretend romance , by the need or want to help and due to vulnerabilities.
These romance scams are supposedly very prevalent but rarely surface due to acute embarrassment.
Who was that Michael?
‘£4 million in gold deposits in Ghana he was trying to have released from the bank. He claimed that after he had recovered his wealth from the bank he would come to Foster and they would spend their retirement together in luxury. He just needed some additional funds in order to complete the deal.’
With collateral like that I could afford to live in Dublin.
just about
No fool like an old fool,
As they say… there’s one born every minute…
….and two to take ‘em.
Hard to feel sorry for her even after being arrested for money laundering and this chap even had her allow other women to use her account to send him money, how would they have fitted into their supposed future together?? Flipping hell after being arrested and giving her story to police she was obviously informed of that this was a clearly a scammer preying on her and these other women yet she continued to send her savings and even go into debt for him. Nah, there’s desperate, gullible and lonely and there’s this, being arrested and landing in a world of legal trouble yet continues to just give away her savings to a charming stranger in Africa of all places. Plain stupidity.
One born every minute..
wow some people are so stupid
Stupid is as stupid does….
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