Woman says thieves targeted dead husband through mail

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Someone is targeting grieving families just days after they lost a loved one.

They are stealing their identities by diverting their mail.

Federal and local police are working to figure out who is behind it all.

A woman named Peggy, who did not want us to use her last name, told us it happened to her.

"It's going to happen to somebody else. I'm not the first person, and I’m not the last person," she said.

She said she wants to expose a mail scheme that stole her husband Michael’s identity within days of his death.

She said she noticed her husband's mail stopped showing up at their Cobb County home.

The local post office confirmed someone filled out an online form to forward Michael’s mail to an address in Sandy Springs.

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The forwarding request automatically triggered a confirmation letter to the couple's home, a security measure to prevent fraud, but Peggy didn't get it, because the crooks also filed this three day "hold-mail" request, enough time for the people responsible to open a credit card in Michael’s name and rack up hundreds of dollars in charges.

"And then when I talked to the postal inspector, he said ‘Yes, this is a very common problem,'" Peggy said.

Consumer advisor Clark Howard told us freezing your credit is the best protection.

"It is one of those things that almost nobody ever does, but all of us should do it, because setting up a credit freeze for us as Georgians takes, in total, one time, maybe 15 minutes," Howard said.

Cox Media Group