One of my grandmothers died a few months ago, and her house passed on jointly to my father, uncle, and cousin. I’ve started getting spam texts referencing the property address, some of them offering real estate and some being regular scams (ie “you have a package waiting, please click on this link to give us your credit card number”). My question is, what would have published my number in connection to this property? I’m not part of the estate and wasn’t part of the obituary or any announcements that I know of.
I’m guessing that they’re just searching on the last name, which is same as my father and uncle, though not the grandmother as she divorced and remarried, and maybe things that show I’m related to them. But I was wondering if they’re using some specific publication that would show my phone number (or name for that matter) when a relative dies but I’m not part of the estate or listed in the will.
The paid sites that offer to find someone for a small fee often will name everyone who has been associated with that address. Google yourself sometime. And a lot of that information is just plain incorrect.
And then whatever state or municipality you are in also sells your information. The State of Oregon Dept of Motor Vehicles (DMV) made 11.5 million dollars selling citizen information last year. Change the address on your license, as required, sold! Public birth records? Sold! You are now inundated with new kid stuff in the mail. How did they know? It is all for sale.
Did the house get sold? Probably that. Or the death record.
The thing is, I’ve never been associated with the address as far as I know - never lived there or had mail delivered there. I’ve never lived in the state or municipality where the house is either, and wasn’t in the will so don’t have anything to do with the estate. Doing the free people search stuff doesn’t turn up that address as one of the ones associated with me (though it does get most of the others). The house hasn’t been sold, and even if it had been my name and number aren’t associated with it as far as I know. My guess is that my father does turn up in the estate, and the ‘people search’ sites know that I’m related to him so the spammers send me stuff figuring I might be involved. It’s odd to me because I’ve gotten very little text spam before, and now I’m getting a lot that mentions that address.
It’s because you are connected to your father, uncle and cousin. Scammers casts wide nets. Their hit rate doesn’t need to be very high the more people they attempt to hit.