Digital Legacy: Accounts After Someone Dies
What happens to email, social media, photos and online accounts when someone dies, how to set up legacy contacts now, and how families can close or memorialise accounts safely.
Our lives now include email, photos in the cloud, social media, subscriptions and online banking. When someone dies, families often struggle to access or close these accounts, and scammers sometimes exploit the gap. Planning ahead makes it easier for everyone, and knowing the process helps if you are dealing with a loss now.
Planning your own digital legacy
- Set legacy contacts where offered, for example in your phone's cloud account, email provider and social media settings.
- Use a password manager with emergency access, so a trusted person can request access if needed. See sharing passwords with family.
- Keep a simple list of important accounts (not passwords) with your will or important papers.
- Decide your wishes: delete, memorialise, or pass on photos and files.
- Tell someone where the information is.
When someone has died
- Secure their phone and email first; these control other accounts.
- Use official processes: most major providers have forms for deceased users, usually requiring a death certificate and proof of your authority.
- Memorialise or close social accounts through the platform's official process.
- Cancel subscriptions and remove saved cards.
- Notify banks and follow their bereavement process.
Watch for scams targeting grieving families: fake debts, fake insurance or inheritance payouts, and messages sent from the deceased person's hacked accounts. Verify everything through official contacts. See inheritance scams.
Protecting the deceased's identity
Identity thieves may use a deceased person's details. Notify credit bureaus and relevant government agencies according to your country's process, and keep watch for letters about new accounts.
Received a message about a relative's debts or estate? Paste it into CyberWatch AI Scan for a free check.
Related: account security after bereavement or divorce. For more, read our guide to identity theft and account security.
Frequently asked questions
What is a legacy contact?
A person you nominate to access or manage some of your data or account after your death. Several major providers offer this, including for photos and cloud accounts.
Can family members access a deceased person's email?
Usually only through the provider's official process, which may require a death certificate and proof of authority. Logging in with the person's password may breach terms or law.
Are grieving families targeted by scams?
Yes. Scammers read obituaries and target families with fake debts, fake insurance payouts and account takeovers.
Sources
- Debts and Deceased Relatives, US Federal Trade Commission
- How To Organize Your Important Papers Before Disaster Strikes, US Federal Trade Commission
- Planning Your Own Funeral, US Federal Trade Commission
