Protect your identity and documents during a natural disaster

If you’ve been on the receiving end of a severe weather event, such as a hurricane, tornado, derecho, hailstorm, wildfire, or floods, it’s probably hard for you to imagine anything that could make living through one of these disasters worse. But there is a particularly nasty class of criminal that preys on survivors after the storm has struck.

These crooks swoop in, ostensibly to offer aid, but really to make money off people at one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), in 2024 the agency received more than 4,500 complaints reporting approximately $96 million in losses to fraudulent charities, fictitious crowdfunding accounts, and bogus assistance in disaster relief campaigns. Typically, these scammers pose as charitable entities, offering humanitarian aid or coordinating fundraising efforts, including monetary and cryptocurrency donations. Charitable fraud schemes associated with severe weather are a common occurrence online, as well as through in-person collection drives.

Forewarned is forearmed

The best time to guard against those who’d take advantage of you in a disaster’s aftermath is before a disaster ever happens.

Know the risks in your area. Be aware of the types of natural disasters that are most likely to happen and plan accordingly.

Protect your PII. After a disaster, your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) will be one of the fraudsters’ primary targets. These are the key documents and forms of identification people often leave behind in post-disaster chaos, and controlling this information is crucial to protecting your identity. If these records are stolen, lost, or destroyed, recovering from a natural disaster can become much harder. PII includes:

• Your date and place of birth and family birth certificates
• Social Security Numbers (SSNs) — yours and your family members’ — either on your SSN card or other documents
• Account numbers and financial records for bank, insurance, investments, and credit cards
• Government-issued identification such as a driver’s license and passport
• Contact information, such as your email address, physical address, and telephone numbers
• Passwords and PINs for online information
• Verification data such as your mother's birth name, the street you grew up on, pets’ and kids’ names, and high school you attended
• Medical records, prescriptions, and images

There are additional steps you can take now to shorten your recovery period. You should:

• Prepare to grab and go. Purchase a waterproof box or folder that can hold all your family’s key documents and IDs.
• Better yet, use the cloud. Store front-and-back scans of your important documents, photos, and other irreplaceable items in a password-protected online vault. Alternatively, if you have an account with a bricks-and-mortar bank, get a safety-deposit box and use it as a repository for copies of family members’ IDs and important personal documents (banking, medical, insurance, legal).
• Cancel your mail delivery before you evacuate. Unattended mail is a jackpot for thieves.

Don’t give the crooks access

Be wary of strangers patrolling the disaster zone, and if something strikes you as wrong, contact a first-responder or law enforcement representative. If you’re approached by someone purporting to be a helper who asks for your PII, trust your instincts. If this person seems suspicious, ask them for photo ID, and call their places of business to verify employment. Anyone who legitimately wants to help you will be glad to furnish this information, and they won’t mind you checking up on them.

Criminals may also try to obtain your PII or that of your neighbors by:

• Sifting through debris
• Looting
• Posing as a government official (remember, state and federal officials will never ask you for money or charge an application fee)
• Pretending to represent a charity
• Impersonating insurance agents, bank agents, or housing inspectors

If the worst happens…

Contact your insurance company, bank, creditors, and other trusted companies as soon as you reach a place of safety to learn about what to expect during the recovery process. Update them with a temporary address if possible.

The information included here was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, however Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, SI, and its employees make no guarantee of results and assume no liability in connection with any training, materials, suggestions, or information provided. It is the user’s responsibility to confirm compliance with any applicable local, state, or federal regulations. Information obtained from or via Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, SI, should not be used as the basis for legal advice and should be confirmed with alternative sources.

7/2025