Family Receives Emails from Deceased Mother’s Email Account

The family and friends of Paula Chase, a Virginian woman who passed away two years ago, have started receiving emails from Chase’s Yahoo! email account. The emails began about two months ago, after someone hacked into Chase’s account.

Cassie Woods, Chase’s daughter, says that Chase’s family and friends began receiving emails from Chase’s email account almost two years to the day after Chase’s death. Even after Woods’ husband sent the hacker an email asking him or her to stop using Chase’s account, the hacker continued to send spam emails to those in Chase’s address book.

Chase’s family then contacted Yahoo! and asked them to close the email account. Yahoo! informed the family that the company needed Chase’s death certificate in order to close the account, even though Chase’s obituary is available online and her name is listed in the Social Security death index. Chase’s family is still trying to get Chase’s death certificate so Yahoo! will shut down the email account.

See Family Horrified by Dead Mother’s Emails, 10News, Dec. 5, 2011.

Special thanks to J. Barrett Shipp (associate, Heinrichs & De Gennaro, P.C., San Antonio, Texas) for bringing this article to my attention.