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June 7 - June 9, 2018
Don’t scrap your whole ID when you disappear. Work to make your own legal records as invisible as possible, and distract your pursuers with a tangle of disinformation.
Disappearing is a lifestyle change. Change your passions, or they’ll become your pitfalls.
Back when I was a skip tracer, I used people’s hobbies to locate them all the time.
If you’re going to disappear, stop doing all the things that
people would expect you to do. Don’t collect. Don’t indulge. And for the love of God:
Don’t Google yourself once you’ve hit the road.
“Just be yourself” is the opposite of what you should do once you hit the road.
It wouldn’t hurt you to disappear a little. Yes, you. Companies are still buying and selling and trading your information all the time, and the deals that got you on some annoying mailing list or telemarketing database yesterday might lead to identity theft and financial ruin tomorrow. Do you really want your contact information, credit score, age, and family connections splashed
all over the Internet for everyone to see? How could that possibly be a good thing? Think of this chapter as “disappearing lite” for those of you who just want to make yourselves a little less vulnerable to identity thieves—to reduce your information footprint, your digital footprint. To protect yourself from what we in the business call intrusion, you can take several preemptive steps to secure your personal information. First, let me define “intrusion” for you. Intrusion, n.: a criminal act in which an individual claiming to be you uses your personal information for financial gain.
Fight deception with deception.
Passwords are a plus.
avoid the following common password mistakes: using children’s names, pets’ names, birthdays, the word “password,” your hobby, your mother’s maiden name, your favorite sports team—or recycling the same password you use for every other log-in, from Facebook to e-mail to your checking account.
Restaurants and bars are also risky. Waiters and bartenders usually take your card away and swipe it, leaving you vulnerable to a secondary
fraudulent swipe . . . or a guy with a pen and paper who copies down your number, expiration date, and security code. Pay for your meals in cash.
Use prepaid credit cards.
It’s ridiculously easy for thieves to steal your information from the mail.
Your best bet for secure mail is always going to be an unbreakable, unpretextable, indoor private mail drop.
Go paperless with your bills.
Signing up for text alerts is only a good idea if you’re an
average person who’s not being pursued by a skip tracer, a stalker, or Johnny Law. If someone pursuing you manages to get hold of your text history, he’ll be able to surmise your location based on where you’re making charges.
When you sign up for online billing, do not use the same e-mail address that you use for contacting work, friends, and family. Create a separate e-mail address that you use for bill payments
only. Make sure this e-mail doesn’t include your first or last name or any other obvious identifying details.
THE FRANK M. AHEARN GUIDE TO DESTROYING A COMPUTER 1. Get a hammer and whack the hard drive a few times. 2. Put the hard drive in a bucket and fill it with Lysol or turpentine. Please do so in a well-ventilated area so you don’t get sick and sue me. Keep out of reach of children and pets.
