An elderly couple who died in last month’s Surfside condo collapse were targeted by hackers who stole their identity and used it to open fraudulent credit card and bank accounts and withdraw cash on the day of their funeral.
Antonio Lozano, 83, and his wife Gladys, 79, were in bed just before 1:30am on June 24 inside Unit 903 of Champlain Towers South when the building collapsed.
The couple was just a month shy of celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary. They had been together for 68 years.
Their bodies were identified on June 26 through DNA matching after a sample was provided by their son, Sergio, who lives just across the street from the collapsed condo.
According to Sergio, hackers used his parents’ names to fill out a change of address form. They then opened up fraudulent credit card and bank accounts.
Antonio Lozano, 83, and his wife Gladys, 79, were in bed just before 1:30am on June 24 inside Unit 903 of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida when the building collapsed
Sergio Lozano, the couple’s son, said that hackers stole his late parents’ identities and used the information to open credit card and bank accounts and steal cash
According to Sergio, hackers used his parents’ names to fill out a change of address form. They then opened up fraudulent credit card and bank accounts
The thieves then used the Zelle digital payment app to withdraw money from the accounts. To add insult to injury, the withdrawals were made on July 7 – the day of the Lozanos’ funerals.
‘I have an apartment on Champlain East where I could see my mom cooking and my dad watching TV from my apartment, from my terrace,’ Sergio told WSVN-TV.
‘That Wednesday, the 23rd, was his last day at work, which he was here.
‘We had a final dinner together, and they left the apartment at 9:45, and at 1:20 in the morning, it was the collapse.’
Sergio was awakened by what sounded like a loud explosion.
He looked across the street in horror and saw his parents’ building collapsed into a pile of debris with smoke billowing from the ruins.
Moments later, Sergio sprinted toward the wreckage.
‘I grabbed a pair of sneakers and ran down, and I got there with fire rescue and Surfside Police,’ he said.
The thieves then used the Zelle digital payment app to withdraw money from the accounts. To add insult to injury, the withdrawals were made on July 7 – the day of the Lozanos’ funerals
The couple was just a month shy of celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary. They had been together for 68 years
The Lozanos are seen above with their grandson, Sergio Jr (far left), and their granddaughter-in-law Vanessa Lozano (far right)
‘Mom and Dad are dead. The building’s gone.’
Sergio initially bought an apartment upstairs from his parents so that he can keep an eye on them in case of a medical emergency.
He then sold that unit and bought an apartment across the street.
Their bodies were recovered on June 26 two days after the collapse.
The couple was laid to rest on July 7.
In the period leading up to that day, however, hackers were using their information to steal their money, according to Sergio.
‘The day of their funeral, they began to process [the account], and after they’re dead and buried, they’re stealing from them?’ Sergio told WSVN-TV.
‘It’s just wrong, just wrong.’
Sergio added: ‘I find it totally devastating, after losing my parents, that I have to deal with all the estate issues, and now I’m having to deal with somebody stealing from my parents.’
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told WPLG-TV that the Lozanos aren’t the only victims of identity theft.
The mayor said that at least one other family has been victimized, though he did not identify them.
‘It’s the revictimization of the victims that we’re sort of starting to experience right now with these hackers,’ Burkett said.
‘They’ve seen the names in the paper, they’re going right to that and we’ve had to have discussions with the families and listen to them telling us the stories about all of a sudden credit cards appearing in their names and things being purchased in their name, so we’ve told ‘em, you’ve got to immediately shut down your credit.’
Their bodies were identified on June 26 through DNA matching after a sample was provided by their son, Sergio, who lives just across the street from the collapsed condo. The collapsed condo is seen above on June 25
The Miami-Dade Police Department has launched an investigation. As of Sunday, no arrests have been made.
At least 97 people have died in the collapse of the 12-story condominium. All but two have been identified.
The recovery effort at the condo site is slowly winding down, with perhaps one more body still buried in the rubble.
Work is now shifting toward determining what caused the oceanfront condo to come down.
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While Burkett declined to specify how the hackers managed to pull off the theft, it is likely they used a technique commonly referred to as ‘ghosting.’
Ghosting is a form of identity theft in which scammers who scan news stories and newspaper obituaries about the recently deceased use their names to take over their bank accounts and apply for new credit cards.
GHOSTING: A FORM OF ID THEFT THAT TARGETS SOME 2.5 MILLION DEAD AMERICANS PER YEAR
The image above is a stock photo depicting a professional hacker using a laptop
Ghosting is a form of identity theft in which scammers who scan news stories and newspaper obituaries about the recently deceased use their names to take over their bank accounts and apply for new credit cards.
The most sophisticated hackers glean key bits of information from obituaries like the victim’s full name, maiden name, date of birth, place of birth, place of residence at the time of their death, their mother’s maiden name, where they were employed, and where they went to school.
They can then use that information to track down the deceased’s address.
Hackers have also been known to purchase stolen Social Security numbers from the dark web or obtain the number from other sources.
Ghosting often goes unnoticed because after a person dies, it could take months before their death is registered with relevant bodies including the credit reporting agencies, the Social Security Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service.
According to the cyber security firm LifeLock, some 2.5 million identities are stolen from the deceased every year.
Cyber security experts encourage the deceased’s next of kin to take several steps to prevent the identities of their departed loved ones’ from being stolen.
These include limiting the amount of personal information shared with newspapers and other outlets that print obituaries; immediately notifying the Social Security Administration of the death; sending a copy of the death certificate to the IRS and the credit reporting agencies; and reviewing the deceased’s credit report for any suspicious activity.
