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Well, consider: someone who is documented as dead appears with a birth certificate. Do you a) assume that this person is the (presumably) deceased person, or b)
by brendoelfrendo 5y ago
Well, consider: someone who is documented as dead appears with a birth certificate. Do you a) assume that this person is the (presumably) deceased person, or b) assume that a living person is trying to steal a deceased person's identity?
The problem is that we're really poorly equipped to handle problems of identity. It's hard to prove that you are you, absent documentation. Documentation usually issued by a government, or by a private agency on behalf of a government. And if that government thinks you're dead, well, all that documentation is worth about as much as the paper it's printed on.
Short of, say, a dental, medical or DNA match, then yeah, this is a really hard procedural fix.
- pteraspidomorph 5y agoEU countries have real ID with biometrics though...
- thefounder 5y agoI believe biometrics were required only recently.
- rebuilder 5y agoIt's been a requirement longer than the three years this woman has been officually dead. Of course, perhaps she didn't have a passport before
- brendoelfrendo 5y agoFrom the article, she found out she was dead when she tried to get a passport.
- rebuilder 5y agoYes. EU passports are valid for 5 years AFAIK. The article doesn't say whether she previously held a passport or not.
- tharkun__ 5y agoYep exactly. That's why I mentioned the country :) As the in-between poster mentioned, he routinely does it with his kids. I presume he's in a country where this is easier then. That's why I mentioned France vs. being somewhere else. Here in Canada I could believe for example that this might be easier (though I have nothing but conjecture). I say that because I do know that getting your papers for the very first time "all" you need is for two persons that are already Canadian citizens to affidavit that they've known you for at least 2 years (IIRC) and that they think you are who you claim you are. On top of like your birth certificate. But thats not necessarily Canadian and not sure how much that can or will be checked. I know from some colleague who is Vietnamese, born somewhere in China while fleeing, who had no birth certificate and doesn't know his actual birth day (just roughly the year), never mind where he was born exactly. When he wanted to do something that required a birth certificate a Chinese co-worker offered to "talk to a guy" and "get him a birth certificate". I presume France lies on the other end of the spectrum :)
- arp242 5y agoThe thing is, it's one thing to have a hard procedure to correct an erroneously issued "death": "You need evidence A, B, and C". This might be hard, but okay, fair enough. But in this case, it seems there is no procedure at all. She is never asked for evidence A, B, and C. She's essentially asking "this is an error, what can I do to fix it?" and the answer is essentially "nothing."
- hansvm 5y ago> Well, consider: someone who is documented as dead appears with a birth certificate. Do you a) assume that this person is the (presumably) deceased person, or b) assume that a living person is trying to steal a deceased person's identity? The fact that they're dead hardly seems relevant. Right now today you can give my birth state $20 and pinky promise that you're me, and they'll mail my birth certificate to any shady shell company you choose. You can bootstrap that document into the rest of my identity. If that's the standard of evidence for impersonating living people I don't know why we'd go through so many hoops to make impersonating dead people hard.
- pixl97 5y agoIn cases where the living person exists they can chime up (at least in the typical cases) that someone is stealing there identity. In the dead person case, the dead person cant testify on their own behalf.