HOW TO DISAPPEAR

FROM

BIG BROTHER

FRANK M. AHEARN

Copyright © 2014 Frank M. Ahearn

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1497524385

ISBN-13: 978-1497524385

I FEAR BIG BROTHER

As child, I was taught to believe that America was the greatest country in the world. My parents taught me that America stood for democracy and always jumped to the front of the line to fight for freedom. I cannot say if this was one hundred percent true or not but I can say such an idea is a valiant idea. However, I now find it difficult to believe that a country that spies on innocent citizens to protect them from an invisible enemy or a crime yet committed could be the same country

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence (sic), promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

There is nothing tranquil about the NSA stealing pieces of data out of the air. This goes against the idea of a perfect union and securing liberty. It is just wrong.

The domestic spying that is happening in America today is covert. We do not see the spying happening in front of our faces. The tangible evidence of the violation is sleight of hand. It all appears too surreal.

When the Stasi listened in on conversations in East Germany, there would be physical evidence like a bug in the phone or hidden in the light switch. The citizens of East Berlin knew all too well, who the men in dark suites were. They feared the occupied cars parked across the street from their homes. Most surveillance had a presence.

When the NSA listens to our phone calls, they press a few buttons and we hear no evidence of the invasion. When the Stasi wanted to read mail, they would intercept the mail and the citizens of East Berlin knew of the intrusion.

When the NSA extracts our email correspondence, they press a few buttons but we see no evidence of this. There are no tangible clues to witness or feel when digital spying is occurring. It is a ghost in the machine and all goes undetected by us, the citizen of a supposed Democratic nation.

As a child, my parents taught me that communism and socialism was evil. Its citizens had no rights when it came to their person. True or not depends on what side of the border you stood. I am trying to discern the difference between spying that was committed without technology in the name of protecting state. To spying, that is currently being committed with technology in name of protecting the state. Sadly, I do not believe there is no difference.

We must be aware and recognize the buttons BIG BROTHER push and the buttons we push are not that different. Both serve the deed of collecting private information.

The true concern should be that in this ominous time we do not know how this information will be used against us in the future. Citizens of a true democracy should never have such concerns. I say fear the buttons and think before you push.

DISAPPEARING FROM BIG BROTHER

A year before writing this book I met up with a retired drug smuggler in Dublin. He burned some people during his incarceration and they wanted to take him out of the game. Law enforcement contacted him and explained that there was a contract put out on his life. They offered him protection with the stipulation that he had information to offer. This was not his cup of tea and he said no.

We met in a hotel lobby in Dublin and at first; I thought he was a journalist pranking me. The smuggler was not your average looking smuggler that is if there is such a thing. He looked more like a bean counter then a man who ran a drug empire. However, after the conversation began to roll it was obvious this was no prank. His life was jeopardy and he needed to disappear.

A funny part of the conversation came about when he asked if there were any books he could read about coping with disappearing. Last I looked Dear Abby had not written a disappear book. Anyway, who cares about coping with disappearing, when you are in the hunt? You disappear and forget about the residual emotional baggage. My suggestion was to read books about criminals who went on the run and see what occurred in their life.

Eventually we made our way from each other and something he said about disappearing from BIG

BROTHER played in my mind. I began to think about the disappearing process if the predator were in fact BIG BROTHER.

I realized there is no secret sauce or decoder ring in the disappearing world. All you have in your arsenal are books written and failed stories from others who have disappeared.  To disappear from BIG BROTHER would the ultimate disappearing match.

Disappearing is mostly art with a little science in the mix. Each person is different and I believe that before you disappear you need to develop a code to stand by. How you create, the code is by learning from others who have failed in the disappearing process. This is the closest you will ever come to a secret sauce or decoder ring.

I think it is best to first look at the downfalls of the disappeared. What is the clutch that they released right before their demise? I would say becoming comfortable in their existence and compromising the code they originally lived by. Those that have successfully disappeared seemed to risk it all with one unproven thought, the thought that it is was safe. Believing something is safe is not proving it is safe.

Another downfall that the disappeared commit is they return to the place they left. If one has successfully disappeared, one should stay disappeared! What is the point of putting five, ten or fifteen years of freedom in jeopardy?

Environment can be a red flag, where the disappeared spends, their time is key.

Most likely if one hangs out at the local bucket of blood where miscreants and gang bangers do their thing; it is likely the heat will show up. BIG BROTHER will ask for your papers, papers please.

Resources are an important key to disappearing successfully, whether it is money, shelter or a place to disappear to you. You need to have resources or figure out how to obtain resources. You must be cautious when accessing or obtaining resources, they could lead to your discovery.

Only you can be the architect in your disappearing plan. You must create a code that works for you and never become complacent while you are disappeared. You must never folly with the idea that it is safe to return unless it is dire. Looking back can only tempt you to consider a return. It is best to leave the life you left behind in the rearview and never tempt fate.

BIG BROTHER BIG BUSINESS

When George Orwell wrote 1984 and coined the phrase BIG BROTHER I believe he specifically meant government. However, BIG BROTHER is more than government; BIG BROTHER is also BIG BUSINESS. When you look at the two entities side by side, you will see there is not much difference in their agenda. BIG BROTHER charges a fee to be a citizen. BIG BUSINESS charges a fee to utilize its services.

Perhaps you are thinking that Google, Facebook and other such entities do not charge a fee but they do. They are all digital dope fiends feeding off your personal and sometimes private information. Have you ever wondered why an app you download needs your physical location. Sure GPS app makes sense but a silly game. Apps are nothing but wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Popular graffiti on the internet are the big bold letters offering free background searches, free criminal searches and other hyperbolic information. It is all public record information used by BIG BUSINESS to turn a buck. The problem happens to be there is no responsibility in the resale of information. BIG BUSINESS does not care if Linda White is a victim of a stalker and that selling her information can place her in danger. However, that is capitalism at its corporate cold hearted finest!

Many of these types of database sites are selling bankruptcy records, liens, death records, family connections, old phone numbers and other information junk. Some of this junk can make our lives miserable. Unfortunately, with the internet today, there is no refuge from past mistakes, the internet is unkind and BIG BUSINESS does not seem concerned that all this regurgitated data only helps to propagate your mistakes. Capitalism has no heart, soul or conscience; it is business as usual on the internet.

The way I see it, there is not much difference between BIG BROTHER and BIG BUSINESS they both thrive one way or another off your information. They both collect information and utilize to their advantage. Think about the software that BIG BROTHER uses to spy on Americans and the rest of the world. BIG BUSINESS creates a good amount of the software. It is obvious that BIG BROTHER and BIG BUSINESS have no problems developing and utilizing spy software against its citizen. No one seems to be put out of business, arrested or fired for spying on American citizens, quite odd and seriously disturbing.

No matter how you slice it BIG BUSINESS is selling us out, our privacy and freedom are available for profit. The idea of citizenship is wonderful but we pay a high a price to be a citizen. Oh, wait I forgot, freedom is not free. Be it taxes paid to BIG BROTHER or cost of services to BIG BUSINESS.

We are now paying a “digital tax” via our private information. The worst part of the digital tax is both entities freely stick their creepy hands in our pockets and grab at will.

Always remember the surveillance tools of BIG BROTHER are sometimes the creation of BIG BUSINESS. The free surfing and social sites offered online are the beginning of human/social profiling.

I like to believe that I am not a conspiracy theorist or overly paranoid but when companies request information from user that has nothing to with the website, software or app it is suspect. It must be treated as suspect.

We are at the doorway to losing all privacy and if we do nothing, there will come a time when every American company will supply information on their users to the government. Perhaps that is currently happening. Be aware in your daily life that you are not only disappearing from BIG BROTHER but BIG BUSINESS too.

I am tired of people saying. “If you have nothing to hide it should not matter.” Well that is not true. Privacy matters even if you have nothing to hide. I do not want BIG BROTHER or BIG BUSINESS to know who I speak with, who I email, when I travel, what type of car I rent, who and what I text. It is simply none of their business! Where is freedom and democracy in all of this madness?

Is the Thought Police now real?

BIG BROTHER and BIG BUSINESS are obviously partners in crime and they wash each other’s dirty hands. Think about it, who does the government bailout in times of crisis, certainly not the citizens of the country but its collaborator BIG BUSINESS. When was the last time the government tossed a bone your way when life came crashing down? When was the last time BIG BUSINESS contacted you and said not to worry about the next two months bills they will pay them?

BIG BUSINESS gets huge tax breaks, average income citizens do not! From the way I see it, it appears that BIG BROTHER caters to the way of BIG BUSINESS and little citizen simply foots the bill and puts up with the inequity. Oh, I forgot you could write your congressional representative. BIG BROTHER is BIG BUSINESS and BIG BUSINESS is BIG BROTHER!

When you think about who you are, disappearing from part of it is information controlled by BIG BUSINESS. Think phone records, bank records, airline records, Facebook, Blogs, news websites, Google, email hosts and every other record or posting you have no control over. We have all walked and left a footprint with these companies. Some services free and some we paid for. We may stop using their services but they will never stop using our information.

To a degree, BIG BROTHER is a conceptual idea that represents any entity that uses information for control.

BIG BROTHER and BIG BUSINESS are the EVIL TWINS and one in the same. The services that are free and the ones you pay for are offered by BIG BUSINESS will ultimately end up in the sticky fingers of BIG BROTHER. It will happen either through spying or BIG BUSINESS selling or freely handing over your information to BIG BROTHER.

The lesson here is to think of everything in your world as an extension of BIG BROTHER. To spell it out, if you press enter, send or download most likely some sticky finger analyst in a suit will be analyzing the footprint you left behind.

This vulture like way of investigating only brings us to a place where BIG BROTHER will anticipate crime, the Thought Police in action. I know it sounds crazy but so was the idea of a Dick Tracy cell phone watch. Anticipation of… is only a step below conspiracy.

I talk a lot about reinventing ones privacy. I believe we need to exist with the mindset that there is always a third party taking part in our life. If you talk on a cell phone, text, email or sit on a bus chatting with a friend always keep in mind that there is a third party shadowing you. This can assist with the idea of thinking responsibly before you speak text or email.

To disappear and go dark from BIG BROTHER you would actually need to put down all of your electronics and not participate in any digital exchange.

You would need to exist in a place that has no street surveillance. You could not have any credit cards, utilities or earnings in your name. However to be fully off the gird one would need to live on Gilligan’s Island or Walden’s Pond at the very least.

The Gilligan’s Island life does not sound so bad but I will pass on the Thoreau woodsy living. In all truth, what type of life is that? For me that is not freedom and nowhere near the idea of freedom. Disappearing in general and disappearing from BIG BROTHER should be about freedom. It should not be necessary to live like Jeremiah Johnson when wanting to disappear.

Disappearing is Freedom from Oppression!

THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION

I had to throw this idea about joining the French Foreign Legion. This is the ultimate of disappearing in plain sight with the protection of a government and some kick-ass hombre’s at your side.

FROM: www.legion-recrute.com

Whatever your origins, nationality or religion might be, whatever qualifications you may or may not have, whatever your social or professional status might be, whether you are married or single, the French Foreign Legion offers you a chance to start a new life...

Join the 7699 legionnaires and non-commissioned officers hailing from 136 different countries, including France. Build yourself an exceptional future in which “honour” and “fidelity” are fundamental values.

Q. Am I obliged to join under a declared identity?

A. No, since September 20, 2010, the recruited candidates can sign their contract under the real identity. Except those who asked for the change of name. The definitive decision for this change is taken by the commission of selection.

Q. Can I subsequently get back my real identity?

A. Yes. We have a procedure known as “Military regularization of situation” which can be used by any legionnaire after one year's service. It is useful for those who have no particular problems outside the Legion. Fresh identity papers must be obtained from the legionnaire’s original country. A legionnaire, if he so wishes, can spend his entire career under “declared identity”.

Q. Which documents must be carrier a candidate for the recruitment?

A. The presentation of any identity cards (on current validity) delivered by the State of membership of the candidate is asked so as to facilitate the process of selection and recruitment (ID card, passport, driving licenses, diplomas of state). In every case, an act or a birth certificate with filiation will be required before the end of the first year of contract.

Q. Conversely, can a foreign born legionnaire become French?

A. Yes. A legionnaire of foreign nationality can ask for French nationality after three years’ service. He must have been through “military regularization of situation” and be serving under his real name. He must no longer have problems with the authorities, and he must have served with “honour and fidelity” for at last three years.

French nationality cannot be granted under declared identity.

Q. Is discipline in the Foreign Legion much harder than in the regular French Army?

A. No. The discipline enforced in the French foreign Legion is exactly the same as that of the French Regular Army. However, our traditions of an elite force allow us to enforce this discipline with a greater rigor. We have a tradition of excellence and selection criteria, which allow as to surpass the Regular Army.

Q. What are the specific constraints of this elite force?

A.  A legionnaire with less than five years’ service must always wear a uniform. N.C.O.S whatever their service may wear civilian clothes when off duty.

Motor vehicles may not be purchased by a legionnaire of less than five years’ service and who has not undergone “military regularization of situation”.

N.C.O.S must have undergone “military regularization of situation”.

Marriage is authorized only to those having undergone “military regularization of situation”. N.C.O.S. without limits of service. Legionnaires after seven years’ service.

Civilian bank accounts are only available to those who have undergone “military regularization of situation”.

Q. Can a legionnaire go abroad on leave?

A. Yes. Leave abroad is only available to those having undergone “military regularization of situation” and in possession of a valid identity document or passport. Those who wish to return to their own country on leave, must have accomplished their military obligations in that country (where applicable), and must not be wanted by the police of that country. Some destinations are however subject to precautionary restrictions (Iraq, Afghanistan...).

Q. Are there reception facilities for legionnaires who wish to spend their leave in France?

A. There are reception facilities for legionnaires wanting to spend leave in France, for example, the leisure centre of “La Malmousque” in Marseille. These facilities are available on request. N.C.O.S or legionnaires who have not undergone “military regularization of situation” must spend their leave in mainland France.

Q. Can I join the Legion never having been a soldier before?

A. Yes. Even if many Foreign Legion candidates have previous military experience, this is not an essential requirement. Our basic training teaches all legionnaires enough military know-how to be able to serve with “honour and fidelity”. Previous knowledge of the French language is not required either. French is taught to legionnaires during basic training.

Q. Can a Frenchman join the Foreign Legion?

A. Yes, according to the needs of the legion or the wishes of the candidate, he can be engaged under his real identity or under the declared one.

Hey, you never know…

THE VIRTUAL ENTITY

Imagine it is a Friday night, and a teenager at a school dance makes the mistake of asking the bully’s girlfriend to dance. The bully finds out and the teen is soon to be dead meat. The next few days the bully tries hunting the teen down but the teen avoids capture by not leaving any footprints to trace.

The following week the teen is delivering pizza and as he pulls up to the house that ordered the pie, he discovers it is the home of the bully. He knows that ringing the doorbell leads to the losing of his teeth and not delivering the pizza results in teenage unemployment. The question is, how can the teen go about delivering the pizza without getting beat up? Ideally, it would be best to go back to the pizza shop and have another delivery person make the delivery but the teen cannot do that.

The answer is quite simple. The teen rolls up to the schoolyard and convinces another teen to deliver the pizza for the tip money. The bully gets the pizza, the pizza shop gets the money, the schoolyard teen gets the tip and our teen keeps his teeth.

This simple analogy is exactly what people who disappear deal with each moment of their day. Think about the society we live in, the digital surveillance, the cell phone surveillance and the camera surveillance in public and private places.

We typically assume only BIG BROTHER has access to these databases, however, that is untrue. A private investigator with a good source or a skip tracer (finds people) with a good pretext (lie) can access private information.

People who disappear tend to rush into or not think through the process of disappearing and such is usually their downfall. Disappearing is more than going from point A to point B. It is about evolving into a Mr. Anonymous of vanishing and embracing a mindset and philosophy of a VIRTUAL ENTITY. Virtual Entities have no connections to anything physical.

In the pizza teen example, ringing the bully’s doorbell would create a connection between the teen and bully. In the world of disappearing, the doorbell represents anything and everything digital. The minute you press a button, be it send, enter or download, you have created a connection. All connections are traceable.

We have reached an unfortunate milestone in our digital society. That milestone has introduced the obsoleteness of the delete button. The internet/website button may read delete but it does not actually delete your information from a company’s database. Do not believe the word delete, it is a lie!

My new disappear strategy focuses on controlling and breaking CONNECTIONS. Again, think about the buttons you press, enter, send, download, sign on, sign off, add to cart, enter name and every other button or space you type into on your computer or phone. They all connect us to something and that connection leaves a digital trail.

Virtual Entity = Not Being Connected!

The words prepay and cash somewhat conjures up the notion of anonymity. However, there is only partial truth that prepaid and cash creates anonymous use. If you place a call with a pay as you go cell phone, your identity is unknown to the phone carrier and maybe even the caller. However, if you were the one who walked into the store and purchased the cell phone with cash, you created a connection to the cell phone. The transaction at the register connects you via the surveillance camera. There is nothing anonymous about that prepaid cellphone.

How many times have you seen the news showing a murderer caught on tape walking out of a hardware store with a shovel or chainsaw? Think about the connections you create during your disappear process. Ask yourself if you are carrying a shovel or chainsaw for the world to see.

To disappear and become a virtual entity one must begin to remove one’s self from connections. You can achieve this by way of third party. The idea is to have others make the connection for you. Better, a third party being discovered then you.

Think Third Party!

The process of disappearing and becoming a Virtual

Entity becomes a little more difficult with the basic needs of life. To survive in society we need to have money, food and shelter. All three require a degree of exchange. That exchange typically means providing your name, address and sometimes a social security number. Without money, there is no food unless you panhandle or eat in food kitchens. You must supply your information in most socially contracted situations. 

The reality is no one wants to disappear and eat in food kitchens, dumpster dive, sleep in alleyways or homeless shelters. That would just be a drag. Do note homeless shelters are not safe places to hide and living on the streets can make you prime pickings for the words, papers, papers please.

Prior to planning your disappearance from BIG BROTHER or any other predator, you need to figure out how you can exist like a Virtual Entity and have no connections that can blow you out of the water. Such connections are an apartment lease, electric service, credit cards, mobile phone, non-offshore bank account and anything else that requires your actual name, identifiers and physical location. Virtual Entities never enter into these types of contracts that can identify where they physically exist. One can use a third party or a corporation.

Begin thinking about the needs you have in your life and how you can go about obtaining such needs without connecting directly to the service. Be like the pizza delivery teen and figure out how not to push the button yourself. Always think about how you can manipulate technology or BIG BUSINESS and control your connections in order to control your digital footprints. 

I want to be clear when I use the word connection I mean online, offline, digital and non-digital connections. Taking a bus to an internet café is an offline and online connection. However, if you used your monthly bus pass to ride the bus to go to the internet café you created an offline connection. The monthly bus pass will show that you boarded a bus at Broadway and 96th Street. The bus surveillance camera will show you exiting the bus on 57th Street. Next, a street surveillance camera will spot you walking into an internet café. The internet café has a surveillance camera that records you entering and using a computer. The internet café has your surfing history. Connections and footprints go beyond the computer screen.

The bus is an offline connection you created in a physical manner. You could control the connection by walking or paying with cash. If there is a camera on the bus, it will not connect you to your bus pass and create an identification. He who controls the connection controls the footprint!

When you are conducting your disappear research think about connections in the online and offline sense. At the internet café, did you accidentally pay with a credit card? Will a predator find the internet café because it is geographically close to you? Did you take a receipt from the cashier after you used the internet café and leave that receipt for someone to discover?

RAYMOND ROTH

Meet Raymond Roth, who attempted to fake his death at Jones Beach New York in the summer of 2012.  One afternoon, Ray and his 22-year-old son went to the beach to catch some rays. Not long after arriving, Raymond placed his clothes, wallet (minus his driver's license), IPhone (wiped clean of all data), glasses, etc., on his towel, went for a dip in the cool waters of the Atlantic, and did not return.

The younger Roth dialed his stepmother and alerted her of his father’s disappearance. He then dialed 911 and set a rescue mission into full force. While that authorities, friends and neighbors searched desperately for Raymond, fearing he had drowned, he was enjoying a drive to his timeshare in sunny Florida.

Do Not Do a Ray Roth!

Prior to disappearing, Raymond emailed his son information on how to contact him after the pseudocide, and, just for the heck of it, threw in some unflattering comments about his wife. If you plan to fake your death, do not send contact information after you are allegedly dead. Dumb!

Unbeknownst to Mrs. Roth, Raymond put their house up for sale, wiped out their bank accounts, and upped his life insurance policy to a half-million bananas. A load of bricks must have hit Raymond when he was a child to commit such stupid acts.

Managing to outdo his own stupidity, Raymond left a note for his son explaining how to handle his will and the sale of the house he owned with his wife.  (Just another brilliant move Ray made, involving his son, who quickly folded like a bad hand of cards.) 

Let me point out the obvious -- you should never walk away from an extremely pissed soon-to-be ex-spouse, nor try to disappear at a timeshare everyone knows about. As soon as his wife, whom he was so clearly devoted to, learned what was going on, she issued a press release and blew Raymond out of the water.   Raymond was kind enough to provide us with a lesson in many of the do not’s of disappearing.

Do Not

Involve Your Children

Do Not Raise Your Insurance Policy

Do Not Email Information About Your Plan

Do Not Leave Notes Behind

Do Not Piss Off A Spouse

Do Not Put Your House Up For Sale

Do Not Disappear To Known Locations

If you plan to fake your death, ask your self are you committing a Ray Roth.

DISAPPEAR 123

Three questions you need to ask. Where will you go? How will you earn a living? Will it be safe?

Some say money is the root of all-evil but that is untrue in the disappearing world. The lack of money is the evil in the disappearing world. Again, where will you go? How will you earn a living? Will it be safe?

People ask me where is the ideal land of disappear; unfortunately there is no one place that is best or right. We all have different needs. Some people can work from their kitchen table and others need bricks and mortar ruled by geography. Some people are as healthy as can be and other people need to be near specific medical facilities. Some can acclimate in foreign lands and others cannot. True paradise is acquiring what we need. Only you can create your paradise. No book, video or expert can make the decision for you.

Go Short Term But Think Long Term!

When you find that patch of land you want to disappear to, I suggest not renting an apartment for a year but take a two or three month rental. The best rentals are vacation rentals and are typically less expensive than subletting a house or an apartment. Moreover, all utilities are included in the fees and there is nothing in your name but the agreement between you and the person renting you the property. No deposit is necessary.

It is risky to disappear and be one hundred percent sold that the place you are disappearing to, is the place you are going to end up. You could be there two months and hate the city.

If you have a three-month rental, you can split in thirty days and take a small pinch on the money. If you are in a rental for a year, you could lose a lot of green.

In some countries, you may need to pay twelve months of rent in advance for an apartment. Never put yourself in that situation. If BIG BROTHER or your stalker arrives at the door, you could be out mucho dollars.

The internet has created a world of snoops and amateur detectives. It is likely that the person you are renting from will search your name and email address online. Therefore, you will want to create a cover story or backstory the property owner or real estate agent will find about you.

Therefore, before you walk off into the disappearing sunset you must prepare for the internet detectives, “blaggers” and “social twits” you encounter in disappear-land. Internet detectives are those who snoop online, blaggers have blogs and social twits have Twitter. 

What social twits and blaggers have yet to realize is online followers, follow other followers to be followed.

This is not to say that some do not provide informative and interesting content, just the majority do not. My biggest issue with blaggers and twits is they do not consider the privacy of those they blag and twit about, nor do most of them check sources for the accuracy of information.

For example, I rented an apartment in Munich and later that night I discovered a blog posting about me. The realtor/blagger posted on his blog that he met me and I rented one of his apartments.

The idiot had no clue what I was doing in the city and could have compromised my client. When requested he immediately removed the blog.

Twit Responsibly!

Blag Responsibly!

When you are renting your apartment, you cannot tell the realtor not to search about you online. You cannot ask them not to twit or blag about you. This will only create more curiosity. Later that night the realtor will evolve into super sleuth and search you out online.

For this reason, you will need to create a cover story. Essentially, you want to lead the snoop to water and make them drink it.

With some luck, they will choke on it. The game plan is to create content that is realtor and property owner friendly.

If there is anything you should know about me is, I am against the use of fake or stolen identities. The use of fake credentials only makes you ripe for law enforcement and is just plain stupid. Claiming to be a doctor, lawyer or any type of licensed professional is illegal. Be smart!

GO BAG

I travel a lot and every new cities I visit I try to set up a Go Bag. In some cities I have been able to accomplish all go bag contents and in other cities bits and pieces. Better to have bits and pieces then zero! Anytime you enter a foreign city you should set up a Go Bag.

What I do not understand about criminals or those who fake their death is most of them do not have a Go Bag filled with disappear gear or a real walk away plan. It is as if they committed the crime and never anticipated BIG BROTHER knocking on the door.

This is especially true for all the Wall Street swindlers who ripped off their clients. It is as if they thought the good times would never end. At the very least, you would think they would have a million bucks stashed in some small country with no extradition. Although, keep in mind no extradition does not mean you cannot not be extradited. You could become a chess piece traded back to your country for another person of interest.

Throughout the book, I will be writing about the disappearing failures who we have come to know and love because of the massive mistakes they have committed. Learn from their mistakes,

GO BAG OR GET CAUGHT!

FEAR THE BUTTONS

The idea behind being a Virtual Entity is being able to exist “in” society not outside of society. Outside of society be it a commune or deep in a cave with the enlightened ones. However, a commune is not a bad place to disappear.

I assume most people reading this needs or at very least wants access to the digital world, perhaps business, friends, family and even some tasteful porn. The trick is to figure how you can do these things without creating connections.

Disappearing and privacy has changed since the publishing of my first disappear book. In the past, I relied mostly on disinformation, misinformation and reformation. The strategy was to try to delete, manipulate or deviate personal information.

If the client’s home services were in the name of Frank M. Ahearn, I would deviate Frank to Hank and eventually Ahearn to Hearn. In addition, I would deviate the SS#, date of birth, contact numbers and employment. By the time I finished the current information was as abstract as a Picasso painting was. This was the tactic of Misinformation.

From there I would create massive amounts of Disinformation by making it appear the client disappeared to Toronto but actually, the client disappeared to Berlin.

This I accomplished via social media, making bogus phone calls to Toronto and emailing potential employers in Toronto. I purposely leaked information for the predator to find.

The last step of disappearing was Reformation, getting the client from point A to point B in a seamless fashion.

Disappearing people in the past was much easier. I only had to deal with mostly offline information like phone, electric and other database type records. There were minimal amounts of online information and social networking. Today it is much more difficult because information is at a maximum and easily located. In addition, every street you walk down and building you pass has a camera waiting to rat you out.

Fear the Buttons

I say fear the buttons. We click sign on in the morning, we press a button to read our email, we press, reply forward, send and delete.

When a call comes to our cell phone, we press the screen to communicate and then press the screen to end the call. To a large degree, our existence depends on the ability to press buttons. However, technology is perfecting voice activation.

Each touch of the button records our action. Before your finger makes a move ask if the action can trace to you, will the connection, get you captured or killed.

People often asked if it is possible to disappear in the digital age. The answer is yes if you know what you are doing. However, from experience, I have discovered most people do not know what they are doing when it comes to disappearing.

I receive emails from people claiming they need to disappear. They usually address the issue of how to delete their online information. They tend to think that ridding the internet of their information is the end all to their disappear problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. Information assists with locating a person’s where about but it is the physical information that proves their whereabouts.

Online information is only as accurate as its source. Online information can be untrue. The snoop searching for you needs to figure out how to decipher the truth before they move forward and act with the information.

Another question often asked, is it easier to disappear or more difficult to disappear in the digital age? I believe that it comes down to who is using the technology and who is disappearing. It is a chess game, no more, no less. Although those that have the larger budget do own the better odds in the game of hide and seek.

Way back when in my days of skip tracing (finding people) and pretext (lying to obtain information) I worked many crazy cases. Some were seriously dangerous and other outright illegal. Which ultimately brought an unwanted visit to my home; I did everything possible to hide my work and home locations.

This is when the idea of becoming a Virtual Entity popped in my head. My goal was to be able to live, work and not fear a bang on the door.

At first, I thought idea of being a Virtual Entity was being on the move and working out of coffee shops and internet cafes. I would spend an hour in one place and move on to another. The funny part is I never considered the possibility that my car GPS could identify my daily track.

I would spend one hour working on a computer in Hermosa Beach and then ride up to Santa Monica, locate another internet café and set up shop. I never allowed myself more than sixty minutes in one location. I never became friendly with the staff and always parked my car off street.

Then I Realized!

One afternoon I am in an internet café and I sign on to a subjects cell phone account and I hit the print button to print out several months of their phone bill.

After I hit print, I walk over to the printer and wait for the printing to begin. The sweet sound of paper shooting out is like the sound of the morning bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

As I am standing and watching the papers flood from the printer, I see the little screen on the printer display how many pages are to be printed and the current time. Then I look up at a very large round clock and next to the clock is a surveillance camera. Smile Frank.

That is when I realized that connections go beyond the computer screen. I created a physical connection from the downloading of the cell phone bills, to the printing and with the time. All caught on camera.

If the cell company sent an investigator to find out who printed the cell phone bill on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. They would have my shocked face staring at the eye in the sky. This was unsettling and unacceptable in my business. This event made me understand that being a Virtual Entity is someone who has no connections to anything physical.

It became standard operating procedure that everything I did I asked myself if I could be connected to whatever it is, I am doing. If the answer were yes, I asked myself how I could accomplish the same task without creating a link. This is how you must think.

If you are driving from point A to point B and you encounter a toll. Driving through the toll creates a physical connection. If you drive five miles around the toll, there is no connection.

You are probably thinking what if there is no other route around the toll. My answer to that is, you should have thought about that before arriving at the toll.

The objective is to be Virtual Entity with peace of mind. No one wants to hear the word gotcha!

STOP

Do not permit your internet connection to become your accomplice. One of the most serious mistakes disappear hopefuls commit when the idea of disappearing sparks in the mind is not stopping what they are doing and walking away from their computer.

There is no shortage of dumb people in the news. We have read about Mr. Dumbass who emails his son his new contact information after he fakes his death. Then there is Mrs. Idiot who emails her disappear plans to the lover that killed her husband. My favorite is Mr. Chainsaw Shovel Dumbass on the surveillance camera buying the murder tools with cash.

Cash Does Not Make You Anonymous!

Your internet connection is a rat and the worst partner in crime you could ever solicit. In the real world, some partners in crime are stand up guys and can take a pinch.

Once you entrust your internet connection with pieces of your disappear plan there is no turning back. Understand that your internet connection is the biggest rat in the world and will always dime you out! Your internet connection will never invoke the right to remain silent.

What happens is your internet history enters the digital witness protection program and waits to testify against you. There is no hit man capable of killing your internet history!

The message of this chapter is to learn from stupid criminals. Stupid criminals leave traces and do not think beyond the crime. Stupid criminals usually believe they are the smartest one in the crime. The mindset and strategy to embrace is that the predator or BIG BROTHER is the smartest one in the room. By thinking this way, you will never under estimate their abilities.

STOP means stop! Stop all of your surfing and searching from your computers. You are probably thinking or hoping that I am going to lead you to an untraceable solution. Well, you are wrong.

Searching for the untraceable is a fool’s journey, it is the Holy Grail and Noah’s Ark and neither exist. For every software that touts untraceable, some geek is breaking the code. All those privacy software services and anonymous connections you signed up for are useless.

This is not to say that some badass hacker from Anonymous cannot create an untraceable connection. What I am saying is the average person reading this book does not have the technical skills to create their own untraceable connection. Nor could most test privacy software and determine if it truly is private. Using software that makes claims is only placing blind faith in a label.

Unless you are a techie, geek keep to what you know. For the moment, forget about where you are going to locate an untraceable computer and connection. It is time to clean up the digital trace you left behind. Meaning the digital dirt you created in the early stages of your disappear searching.

That would the curious photos of Bimini, airfare to Jamaica, year round weather in Buenos Aires, and banks in Finland and relationship sites in Riga. Trust me ninety-nine percent of you reading this book have digital flakes in the wake. I would wager that at least fifty percent of readers have typed how to disappear into a search engine on a traceable computer or connection.

In six months from now when one of you has faked their death law enforcement or an insurance investigator will obtain a history of IP addresses searched. Law Enforcement might be able to obtain the search terms entered into a search engine. When they discover the words how to disappear in your list the jig will be up and you will be in the hunt.

The information you searched about disappearing cannot be erased or undone. If you planned on faking your death, sorry dude but you are cooked.

If you planned on disappearing from a predator there is hope. You will need to get back on each of the traceable and identifiable computers and connections you utilized and create damage control.

Keep in mind there are two type of footprints created. One is the computer you used and the second is the internet connection you used.

Make a list of computers used and the locations where you accessed the internet. For example if you have a personal laptop you use at home and work, that is three connection.

Personal Laptop

Home Connection

Work Connection

If you used your personal laptop at the coffee shop on the corner and your sister’s home those places need to be added to your connection.

Personal Laptop

Home Connection

Work Connection

Coffee Shop Connection

Sister’s Connection

The same goes if you went to your Aunt Agnes’s for Thanksgiving and you searched for apartments in Caye Caulker on your smart phone. The important question is did you conduct the search via your cell phone wireless or did you jump on Aunt Agnes’s wireless connection?

It is vital you remember three key pieces. Hardware used, like phone or laptop. Connections used, home, work, cell phone and last but far from the least what destinations you searched. You certainly do not want to end up in any of those places.

Think about the various services like banks, cell carriers, web hosting and anything else that could lead to your downfall. Could you imagine if you disappeared to Fiji and six months later BIG BROTHER or another predator gets hold of your internet search history?

All it takes is one search forgotten to land yourself in the mouth of the lion. Always remember that if it turns on or off, it possibly has history!

The BIG BROTHER traceable list goes on and on and on and never ends. If you are in the hunt, I have no doubt that BIG Brother is peaking into your friends and family. I want you to also think geography and ask yourself if you searched the net at any public locations near your work.

Did you sip a latte in a café searching Chicago or eat burger while searching Bruges. Perhaps you surfed at the library down the block or at your sister’s home and brothers business.

Did you drive to an internet café? The GPS in your car will rat you out. Did you bring your cell phone with you when you searched from an internet café across town? If so your cell phone GPS could reveal the location. I am sure you left a dirty digital trail behind but wait there is more.

Have you flown on a plane lately? If so, did you use the onboard wireless? Surely, BIG BROTHER would not find out about that.

Wrong! I have no doubt BIG BROTHER is gobbling up all internet use on planes. All those offshore banks you read about online are dead in the water. Think, think and think some more. Where did you surf from and how will BIG BROTHER find your digital trail or connection?

As you probably know at this point prior to my illustrious career in the disappearing and privacy world, I was a skip tracer and located people in all parts of the world for many a reasons.

One such client I remained in touch with is Mr. Roulette. He reached out to me and asked if I could locate some scoundrel that ran off with a few million euros. I am still waiting for my opportunity to run off with a few million euros myself. If you have, any ideas run them by me.

The subject, Mr. Munich had an office in downtown Munich and when I did some searching, I discovered he never had any internet services connected in his office. However, he did leave behind a few pieces of information that led me to Belfast.

Keep something in mind not having internet connected in your home or office only pushes a predator to search for your internet connection elsewhere. Do not leave that to fate, set up a bogus connection that the predator will discover.

After pounding the streets of Belfast for a few days, I was able to locate an apartment Mr. Munich rented. That apartment never had internet, phone or cable TV service connected. Mr. Munich was somewhat slick. So he thought.

Since the Munich office and Belfast apartment had no internet service one of two things were happening. He used an internet air card, hopped on someone else’s service or went to an internet café

Mr. Munich seemed like a smart criminal so I assumed he did not use a wireless connection he physically carried. If he were apprehended law, enforcement they would know his search history and this would bring him down.

While wandering the streets of Belfast I noticed a few internet places he could have utilized to do his surfing. I took a shot and went into an internet café that I assumed the Mr. Munich may have used. It was a small place and in close proximity, a total gamble on my part. I laid down three hundred euros in front of the woman working the cash register and I asked for a list of IP addresses accessed in past sixty days. The pink haired woman asked if I was serious, and I slid the cash her way. She was kind enough to print the IP’s numerical and then by date. From there I walked to a shipping store and faxed the list of IP’s to my third party service in Denmark.

My Denmark contact enlisted her friends to assist with the job of identifying the various information I was able to extract. One piece of information led to a bank in Monaco; I knew this had to be Mr. Munich. I doubt that any of the customers who used the Belfast internet cafes were checking their balances in Julius Baer.

The information I located was like a road map to Nice and Monaco. One particular group of searches was of interest to me. It was to an exotic car rental company and a particular hotel.

I hopped on a plane to Nice and visited the hotel but I was unable to locate Mr. Munich and could not get any information from the staff.

Next, I hit up the exotic car rental company. I knew they would not provide me with any information about who rented what car. Therefore, I inquired about the types of cars that were not currently available. I assumed that one of those cars would be the one Mr. Munich would be driving.

My next stop was to all the expensive restaurants and I spread a bunch of euros around to the valets. I asked them to keep an eye for a short man with a German accent driving a particular type of luxury car. The following day I received a call and sure enough, a valet identified Mr. Munich. I contacted my client who handled the matter from there on.

Perhaps Mr. Munich should have traveled further away from the Belfast apartment to do his online business. The searches to Nice and Monaco were so uncharacteristic of the Belfast neighborhood. It shot up red flags immediately. It would not have been a red flag if the information were from an internet café in a nice neighborhood in Paris.

I will assume you have created a list of all the compromised computers and locations. Therefore, after you have the list, go to each computer and create digital dirt. Which is digital deception you create and leave behind for others to find.

If you searched realtors, banks and other types of services in Jamaica or Dominica search deeper into both countries. Search singles websites, hospitals, airlines, expat communities and other information relevant to you.

If you searched, drivable locations do a few different searches on MapQuest. For example, if you live in Chicago and you searched Chicago to Phoenix. Look up airlines in Phoenix for flights to Mexico. Then search MapQuest for driving directions from Durango to Monterey, Mexico. Search hotels and banks in Monterey.

Do not forget to search restaurants, supermarkets and email the Chamber of Commerce with a few questions. The searching cannot be cursory, such as one search to the chamber of commerce. Also, search on different days and jump around from page to page. Do more than surf. Open a few email accounts and do some emailing. Email the local Electric Company, Phone Company, hotels and car rental companies. Create dialogue and ask questions in the emails. Contact a local doctor and ask how you can transfer your medical records. Search YouTube for foreign language videos. The goal is to have the digital predator believe you have split to one of the compromised cities.

You should realize that since you searched your destination from compromised computers and connections there will be no disappearing to those places. 

Some people talk too much. If you are the chatty type of fellow or dame, ask yourself if your lips have betrayed you and if you shared your disappearance or destination with another.

Think beyond random chatter. Do you have that dream place in mind that everyone knows about? You know what I mean, the poster of St. Kitts on your wall or travel books about Barcelona.

Are you the person who always talked about moving to Paris or Madrid? Are your computer screen photos of Lisbon? Perhaps you have that travel book of Geneva on your bookshelf. Look around your home and search for possible clues that could lead to your disappear city. You may not think it but something as silly as a refrigerator magnet of a city could be your downfall.

When Frank M. Ahearn disappears, his circle of people will know it will be on some street off Boulevard Raspail. They all know this because I share my dream. If you shared your dream destination with others, it is time to change up the dream.

Imagine BIG BROTHER banging on your friends door wanting to know where you went. Your friend is shaking at the idea that BIG BROTHER rang his bell.

He has no clue where you went but they push harder. Your friend says all he knows is you had a photo of Bagua Grande, Peru on your refrigerator, busted!

GO

In the STOP chapter, I explained the importance of STOPPING and walking away from your computer. The GO chapter is about finding and using computers and internet services that have no connection to you.

When I use the word connection, I mean that you have no direct link to the computer or internet connection. This does NOT mean the connection is untraceable. When I say connections, I mean online/digital connections and offline connections.

The reason I use the word connection is that people tend to forget that connections can create traces just as digital can create digital footprints. If you begin to see them as a whole or the same, you will most likely create fewer footprints.

Take Mr. Munich who I located in Nice. He started out in Munich and created a connection to Belfast. The Belfast apartment created a connection to an internet café and the internet café created a connection to Nice and Monaco.

The mistake Mr. Munich created was not thinking about his online and offline connections as a whole. He probably thought he was being smart not having an internet connection in the Belfast apartment. However, all this did was force me to walk the streets of Belfast searching for a connection he may have used.

Mr. Munich should have stood on the street in front of the Belfast internet café and asked himself if a connection with the internet café exists.

Keep in mind things tend to appear private, like an internet café two blocks from your home but in reality, it is not private and to a degree guilty by association. Remember paying cash and not using your name is not anonymous!

a•non•y•mous

əˈnänəməs/

adjective: anonymous

(of a person) not identified by name; of unknown name.

con•nec•tion

kəˈnekSHən/

noun: connection; plural noun: connections; noun: connexion; plural noun: connexions

a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else.

Again, if Mr. Munich stood in front of the internet café and thought carefully about what he was about to do it is possible that he may have realized that the location was not safe.  He would have realized that there is a connection between the internet store and his apartment. There is not a digital connection but a walking connection, which is no different from a digital connection.

What Mr. Munich should have done is set up an internet connection in the Belfast apartment and spread the internet with some bogus traces. Instead of searching for hotels and exotic car rentals in Nice and Monaco at the Belfast internet café he should have searched in Belgrade. It is quite possible I would have been on a plane to Belgrade.

To connect to the internet Mr. Munich should have taken a train ride a few hours south to Dublin. From there find free internet service offered in many parts of the city and do his thing.  It is more than likely that I would not have discovered his disappearance to Monaco.

It is important to understand that the goal is to break or seriously distance your identity from the connections you utilize. That does not guarantee the connections will not be discovered but it will make it more difficult for BIG BROTHER or any predator to locate.

Let me shuffle around and talk about the evil twins in society, BIG BUSINESS and BIG BROTHER. Both of them want to know everything about you and neither care about your personal privacy. The snoopy BROTHERS also want to use your information to further their cause. One wants money and the other wants control.

Whether you like it or not we are small pawns in the big game of information- gathering. In my opinion, we have entered a dark era where governments are spying more on their citizens than ever before. East Berlin will go down as the amateurs of citizen spying and the world champions will be The United States of Fearica.

It is up to you to decide what information you keep private and what information you give away. It is also up to you to figure out how to keep your information private. Privacy is only as private as you make it. If you email compromising photos of yourself, it is equal to handing the postal worker the photos with and open envelope. If you email questions to your offshore banker, your government will know about it.

If you write information in your email that, you do not want to share publically. That is equivalent to shouting it through a megaphone on your street corner. Other people have access to your communications, as simple as that. Privacy discretion begins with you and your actions.

We are being monitored twenty-four seven in various ways. When you turn on your light on in the morning the utility company knows you have most likely woken up. The cable company knows what you watch on TV and when you change the station. The internet company knows when you log on and what you surf. Your building manager knows when you step in the elevator and exit the building. The police know when you walk down the street.

The subway police know which train station you enter and which station you exit. The building manager for the building you work at knows when you arrive. Your employer knows your internet habits and possibly the contents of your emails. Daily life has become intrusive and there seems to be no stopping in the future. Always remember there is a third party witnessing and recording your actions.

Where to Surf?

The unfortunate reality of disappearing is there is no 100% private place to surf and plan your disappearance. You must locate a place that has no connection to you. This is the best odds of safe surfing. Always keep in mind that technology changes each second of the day. The location you believe secure today will become the compromised location tomorrow, if not sooner.

GO Location

The GO location is where you will search and acquire your GO tools. From this point on, I want you to forget about the word digital and solely think connections.

The GO Tools

Large Mail Drop

Several Prepaid Debit Cards

Several Prepaid Cell Phones

Several Prepaid Calling Cards

Cheap Laptop or Tablet

Finding a mail drop in most countries is easy. I suggest not using a brand box store but a locally owned drop store. They are the stores that usually have boxes strewn all over the place and most likely will not take notice of you using the mail box as a stash.

The reason for using a mail drop is to stash your disappear gear and to keep it from other people’s hands. If you unknowingly allow others to have access to your phone or laptop, they could put a tracking device or keystroke software on your computer.

The spyware can blow your disappear plans out of the water. I would suggest using several mail drops so not to keep your gear in one location. This is smart in case you need to leave town quickly and one of your boxes are blown.

A note about prepaid credit/debit cards, there are two different types. One card you fill out an application, which has identifiers like, name, address, and social security number. The second card is more of a gift cards supplied by credit card companies. The gift cards you give cash to the cashier to load up the card with credit and the best part is there are no identifiers. However, keep in mind there is the store surveillance capturing the transaction.

Think Connections When Obtaining Tools

Never walk into a store yourself and purchase disappear tools! Remember CONNECTIONS! I would assume that 99.9% of retail locations have surveillance cameras. Do not think you are James Bond or Jason Bourne and try going into the store with a disguise unless you have no other choice.

What you do, is go to a city area that is bustling with people and pay a less fortunate individual a couple of bucks to go into the store and purchase your disappear gear. Do not tempt the minion and hand over a hundred-dollar bill for the purchase. They might disappear, on you.

Give only enough money to buy two phones at a clip and pay them their reward when the merchandise is in your hands. Do not stand in front of the store waiting for your merchandise because a camera could pick you up. Wait across the street out of eyeshot of surveillance cameras.

Be Smart About Your Choice in Minions!

Never, ever give money to a minor to purchase your disappear tools. An individual I spoke with paid a teenager to go into a store and buy a bunch of prepaid phones and several prepaid credit cards.  Standing behind the teen at the register was a plain-clothes detective who found the purchase odd. The detective followed the teen outside and observed him handing over the merchandise to a much older man. Even though there was, no law broken the person found himself in quite the awkward position.

When it comes to a laptop or tablet, buy a cheap small one that will fit in your mail drop. You will NOT register the computer. You will NOT check your real email or any connected email addresses. You will NOT do anything where you have to sign in with identifying information. This laptop is to search for your desired destination.

NEVER

Bring Tools to Home or Work

Have Automatic Wireless Connections

Use Identifiable Information

Never Create Connections

The predator hunting you down can make one hundred mistakes but you the prey cannot afford one mistake. Before you walk into a store, coffee shop or internet café to surf, stand outside and ask if you are creating a connection.

GO WHERE?

Now that we know BIG BROTHER is spying on the whole world, the magic question is how do we plan our disappearance without leaving a trace or not be connected to our footprints. Unfortunately, there is no magical answer. However, the tools I provide will assist you in stretching your connection and making it more difficult for your predator to find and follow you. Remember the belief in the untraceable only slips from the mouth of fools.

You wake up on Monday and it is time to begin your disappear research. Your first step is to go and pick up the disappear laptop and prepaid cell phone you previously stashed in your mail drop. You do not drive there because your car GPS tracks your movement. You leave your known cell phone at home or work, its GPS can track you. It is best to take public transportation and do not use your monthly transportation card to board the bus or train it can track you.

Convenience Captures!

When you leave your home, remember there is an unseen third party watching you. This third party is an enemy walking behind you, looking over your shoulder, tucked away in the technology you carry. This third party is the invisible enemy you cannot foresee and it has one goal, which is to know all about you.

You do not take the train or bus directly to your mail drop, mix it up a bit and shake the tail. Get off a few stops before or after the mail drop and walk.

Continuously ask yourself if you did something wrong or made a mistake and created a connection to the mail drop. If by chance, you run into someone you know do not go to the mailbox, take a few minutes and walk out of the area.

There are few surfing options available. Some buildings have public space and they offer free internet service. I have had success connecting to such services by standing near the door outside the building.

Some parks, malls and city spaces offer free service too. You can utilize these locations as long as your laptop does not have any identifiers. In Dublin and other cities, there are rows of restaurants that provide free internet. I have connected to them standing on the sidewalk and sitting parked in a taxi. Be aware of surveillance cameras, which can identify your face with the connection.

Another other option, which I like, is climbing on unsecured wireless around a cluster of residential buildings. Although, easier said than done. It can take a lot of hoofing through the streets to locate a connection.

If you are fortunate, enough not to live in the cornfields of Indiana there is another option. Prepaid internet wireless is available for purchase.

This type of wireless you purchase the same way you purchased your phones. You have a THIRD PARTY enter the store and make the purchase.

Do not use all the wireless time on the prepaid internet service. When you get down to about ten minutes left leave the wireless hub with password for someone to find. Hopefully, the stranger will jump on the wireless, do some surfing, which can assist with digital dirt if your surfing is discovered.

I would suggest staying away from libraries. If I remember correctly, BIG BROTHER does not need a search warrant to obtain library records. Then again, it is not as if the government needs a warrant to do anything lately when it comes to our records.

If you plan to use an internet café, I would avoid certain ethnic locations. I do not want to be racist but I am sure BIG BROTHER monitors specific ethnicities over others.

Keep in mind that the owner keeps records of everything you do in an internet café. If you are searching for your disappear place in Latvia, do a little searching in the Ukraine and Lithuania to mix it up.

The United States of Fearica is Watching You!

It is quite surreal sitting here writing a book about disappearing from BIG BROTHER.

We truly arrived at a bizarre social place in the United States of Fearica. Who would have thought that the subpoena process has become a thing of the past?

BIG BROTHER is doing some evil deeds and it does not look as if they will be retreating anytime soon. What makes Fearica any different from East Germany in the days of the iron curtain? The Stasi spied on it citizens for the same reason the NSA spies on its citizens, to stop terrorism. Communism viewed capitalism as a form of terrorism too.

One of the problems with government is it does not always know what it is best for society or its citizens nor do they seem to listen when society shouts it had enough. McCarthyism and Prohibition were huge mistakes in Fearica history. I wonder if in fifty years if BIG BROTHER spying will be recognized as an evil act and social mistake.

When you are searching for a location to utilize the internet, ask yourself if BIG BROTHER can trace the connection. The answer is most likely yes, because the government spies on all its citizens. BIG BROTHER is probably not spying directly on Buck’s Internet Café but you should always operate with the mindset they are. However, the important question to ask is can you be identified with that particular connection. If the answer is yes, run. If the answer is no, all is good. The trick in the game is to avoid a connection to the trace.

Outsource Your Search

Another way to safely search online is to hire a friendly third party service or outsourcing service to  do you internet searching and emailing. There are plenty of third party and outsourcing services online. Before you sign up for any services obtain a prepaid debit card and a disposable email account.

After you sign up for the service, you will have the opportunity to post the work or type of worker you need. In a matter of minutes, you will receive a dozen responses.

Before you hire an assistant, it is important to have a cover story to tell. You cannot tell them the truth that you are disappearing and you want them to create your digital footprints. Explain that you are relocating and you would like them to assist in searching information about the city.

The third party assistant can send the information you requested to an email you provide, or they can post the information on the outsourcing service website for you to review. I personally would go the posting route. Someone searching for you would need to know that you signed up for that third party service and then locate your third party assistant to track you down.

Do Not Be a White Guy!

If you are, a white guy like Frank M. Ahearn, do not sign up using an email address that appears to be from a white guy. Mix it up; sign up as Felix Reyes, Francois Beaumont, Gina Haynes, Edna Benitez, or Eddie Alvarez. If you are Vlad Vodka, be Peter Lima if you are Roveda Jacobs be Colleen Brennan and have a little fun.

What I like about using third party services is the people you hire are from all different countries and speak multiple languages. If you want to disappear to Columbia, you will be able to locate a worker in Columbia. This is great since they can assist in advising you on the infrastructure. Never become too friendly or reveal your identity or motives to your third party assistant.

WHAT IS YOUR STORY

When you are living in your new patch of land and you meet the butcher, the baker and the vodka and orange juice maker you need to have a story to tell. It is natural for the people you meet daily to have a curiosity about you. You cannot tell them you are a victim of a stalker in hiding, running from the mob or disappearing from BIG BROTHER. Revealing the truth is nothing but dangerous.

When In Doubt Lie!

This chapter brings me to the story of Elvis Parsley who was a realtor by day and an Elvis freak by night. Elvis went looking for love and found his very own Pricilla on an online love site. The long distance love moved quickly and Pricilla shacked up with Elvis forty-five days later. 

Not long into the cohabitation Elvis realized he had a lunatic on his hands and requested she go back to where she came from. Pricilla was having none of that. Elvis needed the help of the long arm the law to evict her from his home.

Forcibly removed from the home Pricilla had no intentions on leaving town. She immediately morphed from a graceful beauty to a wildebeest’s void of a soul. Pricilla took up residence in a motel, at the end of the road. She turned Elvis’s world upside down, wrecked his business and destroyed his nightlife as Elvis the karaoke master. Elvis reached the point where he knew he was fighting a losing battle and needed some peace of mind. He figured getting out of dodge was his only hope.

When I met Elvis, my primary concern was his Elvis persona. He spent much of his time doing karaoke, trading memorabilia online and visiting conventions. That world needed to end but he resisted.

The unfortunate reality of disappearing is you need to leave the people and things you love in the dust. If you do not leave, habits and hobbies behind you, you will be located because of them. Everything behind you is a potential rat.

Elvis decided not to use my service and ultimately disappeared on his own. He dropped the Elvis act but kept the nickname. Not long into his disappearance a local reporter wrote about a charity event and the locals who supported the cause. The reporter mentioned Elvis in the article but instead of Elvis Parsley, it identified him as Elvis Jones, Jones being his real last name. It did not take Pricilla the crazed stalker long to arrive at his door. I guess Elvis may have left the building but Pricilla followed.

Be aware of your environment and assess all aspects of your situation. Who and what can be a threat to your freedom. Elvis should have never let his photo and name become part of a news article. He could have made up an excuse that he had a phobia of getting his picture taken. Then walk to the other side of the room. As crazy, as it sounds’ claiming a phobia is better than doing nothing at all. Always have a story or excuse in your hip pocket.

A backstory is a simple misidentification tool a disappeared person creates to avoid the truth. When you meet new people, the curiosity comes alive and they want to know information about you. Where are you from, what you do for a living, married, divorced, rich, poor and so forth? This is the foundation of building relationships. If you want to survive in your new world and create some sort of life, you need a story to tell. Being the strange loner in town or the oddball neighbor only creates curiosity.

Have a Lie in Your Hip Pocket!

Now comes the story of a Darla who had some local fame in her hometown. Darla fell in with the wrong crowd and landed on the outs with her mental case boyfriend. Darla knew it was time to get out of town before she met with an unfortunate ending.

The issue with Darla was she happened to be popular on the music scene and so she needed to avoid that life. She also sported a retro Joan Jett look, which she did not feel comfortable changing. Keeping the Joan Jett style and moving to a small town in Iowa was unrealistic. She would have stuck out like black on white rice and become the curiosity of the neighborhood.

I had to address the issue of her minor claim to fame. The concern being, what if someone recognized her and approached her. A situation like this could become problematic. Imagine someone posting on Facebook that the Joan Jett look-a-like singer was in the Des Moines mall buying or selling lipstick.

After changing her style a bit we discussed the recognition issue. I felt it was best not to deny that she was Darla who sang on the stage but to switch up the conversation immediately. Instead she would claim that she was her own doppelganger and admit she knows who Darla is and it is freaky they look so much alike. It is risky but I believe that sometimes it is better to engage then deny and walk away. The hope is that it defuses the curiosity.

I had Darla use a different first name and profession in her new life. If a person from her new world asked what she did for a living, she explained that she is a style consultant and works with Eastern European musicians. I built a detailed website with a reasonable amount of social media to make the information appear real. Darla carried business cards with contact and website information.

Darla picked a stylist background and Eastern Europe geography because she toured there for a few months and felt comfortable chatting about that world. If someone in her new world looked Darla/Tina up online, they would find the website I created about Darla and her business. This helped to satisfy the curiosity in her new circle.

When creating a lie it is best to do so with points of reference. If you are telling a lie about Belize, at least watch a movie or read a book about the country.

Study your backstory! You will look like a super dumb ass and a liar if you do not know what you are discussing. The best lies derive from threads of truth.

In the fine art of pretext (lying), I utilize point of reference lying. I grab from various truths in my life and capitalize on the information I know. When pretexting on the phone I would talk about places I have been to read about or seen on TV. I would talk about the beach or how beautiful Cuba is and the amazing sunsets there. I have never been to Cuba but I have been to the beach and watched the sun go down.

When in Doubt Be Cool, Be Zen and Lie!

If a mall meeting happens, there could be a breach in your disappearance. The person you met could have twitted about you, which could be an issue. With some luck, they do not but you need to find out. Most important in your information recon is you never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, search your name online, never!

Searching your name online could walk you into a trap. In an upcoming chapter, I will tell you about someone who faked his death, searched his name online and walked into a trap.

If you happened to fake your death, remember do not create digital footprints and connect yourself to the search. You have someone else do the search. Take a long bus ride, and contact your third party source and email them instructions that for the next thirty days they are to search your name every day. Avoid telling your third party you are the subject of the search. Always keep your distance.

Each day your third party assistant will search the net for the information you requested. If they get a hit, instruct the assistant to copy and paste the information on to the third party website. You do not want to click the link. What is important too is to let the third party assistant think you are a writer writing a story or you are searching for a friend. This will ease their curiosity.

An alternative way of receiving your information is to have the outsourcing company fax the information to a virtual fax number that you forward to a public fax or to a disposable email address.

If You Click The Link, You Will Sink!

Unless you are living in a shack in Maine or a cave in Tibet, you will run into people daily. The people you run into will be part of your circle. They will come to recognize your face. If you want to avoid the circles, you can do the spy thing and never visit the same place twice but that can be a difficult way to live. It is better to have a good back-story.

What you want to do with peoples curiosity is to control where they search. This is why for the tenth time I am saying you need a back-story. Not just a story you tell but also a backstory the people in your circle can confirm. Better to have the snoop find Frank M. Ahearn fashion photographer then Frank M. Ahearn privacy expert.

Who Are You Website

Just like Darla had a website about her fake employment. You are going to create a WHO ARE YOU website. This website will be a site you can share with the people in your new circle. This way when you are sipping drinks on Anton Martin in Madrid and the barkeep becomes friendly. You can slip him a card with your website information and satisfy the hombre’s curiosity.

I cannot stress the fact enough that your background should be something you know about. It should never be a direct hobby from your previous world. If you were on the bowling team in Spokane or London, you do not want to pose as a professional bowler. The two worlds of past and present could collide.

You could be derivative and claim you sell shoelaces for bowling shoes. If that is your back-story, build a website all about shoelaces for bowling shoes. The back-story should be developed and live on the internet before you go.

Say you decided to be consultant with Skul-Tryon LLC. On www.SkulTryon.ccc you will create two owners, Thomas Skul and Melissa Tryon. Each will have nice bios and there will be detailed information about the company and services. Do not post your photo or photos you have taken. Pictures of you can be located via sites like TinEye.com. The photos you have taken could be Geotagged.

Wiki - A geotagged photograph is a photograph, which is associated with a geographical location by geotagging.

IMPORTANT, do not include your name on the website; your predator will locate you! This website is to establish a back-story in your new world. Company websites do not list all employees so do not list your name.

You could have the title Director of Sales with an email address only using your initials FA@,DirestorofSales. This is the email address on your new business card.

For the website phone number use a virtual number or cheap answering service. Make the background of the company deep with a lot of social and digital information.

SOCIAL: Each of the executive names on your website should have a Facebook account, LinkedIn account and other social accounts. This will make the backgrounds look more realistic also create a few husbands, wives and fake Facebook friends for your coworkers.

NOTE: Facebook and Gmail request phone numbers to confirm identity and will send you a text code. Use your prepaid cell phone and change the number to use again. Other sites request a phone number but do not send a text code, provide them with a bogus cell phone number and all will be good. Note many prepaid cell companies let you change your cell number up to five times before charging. Consider this before buying your phones. After you used the cell phone number to set up the accounts dump the phone and SIM.

Never Provide a Phone Number

That Can Connect You!

BLOG: Have a little fun and create blogs about your bogus company. You can even include some press releases about the company. The idea is to make the company appear legitimate and have a reasonable online presence. If you cannot write, locate a similar type company and copy their blogs but change all identifiers.

When you purchase your domain name, it is important to use a bogus name and email address when registering. The reason for this is when the domains expires the name you provided will be associated with the account.

We exist in an instantaneous society where all is available at our fingertips. To a degree, we expect information on the people we meet to be readily available to satisfy curiosity. When information is not available, we become more curious and that curiosity is the danger in your life. People gossip and most of us at one point or another have played internet snoop. Therefore, it is important to dazzle them with some good deception.

LADY KGB

Lady KGB escaped from a prostitution ring while working in Europe. She came from poverty in her home country and had the opportunity to leave and relocate to for what she believed would lead to a better life. The deal was she would work and payoff the people who smuggled her out of her country. She knew that she would work as a dancer but it did not matter, as long as freedom would eventually come her way.

In time, Lady KGB became the “den mother” and handled a revolving group of girls who worked strip clubs and private parties. As time rolled on, Lady KGB began to inquire about her debt. Each time she addressed the issue and only empty promises came her way. Eventually she knew that freedom was not in her scope.

One afternoon a raid took place in a motel where a group of girls resided. One of the pimps gave Lady KGB a briefcase, sent her off to a different motel and instructed her to wait for him. Curiosity got the better of her and she broke open the briefcase. There were a dozen or so passports, including her own. In several envelopes, there were stacks of colorful Euros. She knew that this would be her only opportunity to get away and she took it. She left the rendezvous motel for another.

Lady KGB

Danger Issues -

Get Rid Of Passports

Deal with Cash

Get Out Of Town

Lady KGB located my website and contacted me. Her email was half a page long and sounded desperate, crazy and paranoid all wrapped up on one. I rarely get on the phone with a potential client without them setting up a prepaid consultation. However, her desperation got the better of me.

Lady KGB had several issues she needed to address immediately. Such as getting out of the city, dumping the passports and dealing with the bag of cash. Each of these could jeopardize her freedom.

If her pimp caught her, it would be death for her. If law enforcement stopped her, the numerous passports and cash would be plenty to detain her.  There were four essential goals, pick up disappearing tools, convert cash, ditch passports and get out of town.

Lady KGB provided me with her hotel address and I searched locations where she could buy a few prepaid cell phones and prepaid debit cards. She hit the streets immediately. There was no time to cover her tracks properly and use a third party to purchase the phones. The threat was looming and escaping was most important.

Goals

Buy Disappearing Tools

Convert Cash to Instruments

Ditch Passports

Get Out of Town

While Lady KGB split from the hotel and went to buy her disappear tools, I was trying to figure out the best way to deal with the passports. Ideally, I would have preferred she drop the passports at the police station with a note of explanation. However, the surveillance cameras could capture her face. This would probably lead to an apprehension at the train station or airport.

I do not recommend disguises but in Lady KGB’s situation, I thought it would be best she utilized one. She picked up scissors, instant hair dye and a change of clothes. In a short period, she had a makeover and with a little luck, Lady KGB would go un-noticed.

I figured the safest place to drop the passports would be at a church. I located an open church and Lady KGB stuffed the passports in the donation box. When this was completed, she quickly made her way to the train station and purchased a ticket for the next train out of town. Lady KGB was now in the hunt and next I would turn her into a Virtual Entity.

When she safely made it to a new city, I had her check into a hotel with room service. This way she did not need to exit the room for food and would only hit the streets to obtain her needed disappear tools. This reduced her exposure.

I needed to figure out how Lady KGB would handle her suitcase full of euros. Traveling with a large amount of cash made her vulnerable to theft, loss and the law. Opening a bank account was not going to happen because she had no proof of address or other much needed identifiers. She also had no plans of staying in the country. To relieve Lady KGB of her cash problem I had her convert her cash into paper, plastic, metal and digital.

Paper

From Wiki - An international money order is very similar in many aspects to a regular money order except that it can be used to make payments abroad. With it, a buyer can easily pay a seller for goods or services if he or she resides in another country. International money orders are often issued by a buyer's bank and bought in the currency that the seller accepts. International money orders are thought to be safer than sending currency through the post because there are various forms of identification required to cash an international money order, often including a signature and a form of photo identification.

Important: Before you purchase an international money order, it is imperative to address two vital questions.

First, will you be able to cash the international money order in your destination country?

Second, is the identification you possess sufficient to cash the money order in your destination country?

Assume you are in a hotel in Copenhagen and are disappearing to Warsaw. You visit Post Denmark and discover they do not sell international money orders, meaning the money orders they sell are not redeemable in Poland.

What you do next is locate a Polish bank that has a branch in Copenhagen and a branch in Warsaw. Before you visit the bank you need a mailing address in your disappear city, in this case Warsaw. I suggest using a large chain hotel as your address. Large hotels will accept packages for guest.

Once you find a Polish bank branch, speak with a manager and explain you are moving to Warsaw and will be working for a large chain hotel. Explain that your family gave you cash as a going away present and you do not want to carry the cash. Ask if the bank can provide a money order or bank check and if they are redeemable at their Warsaw branches. Again, confirm your proof of identity is sufficient to cash a money orders or bank check. I would avoid traveler’s checks.

The saying, a smile goes a long way is 100% true. When you are trying to obtain something from another person smile, be polite and ask about their day.  If you see, photos on their desk compliment them on their beautiful grandchildren. The goal is to have the person like you and to solve your problem.

Most bankers will suggest you open a bank account. However, the reality is if you will not have the proper documents, such as proof of address like utilities or phone bill. Nor will you have the relevant social identification number. If you can obtain a bank check or international money order, go for it!

Plastic

The next step is to turn cash into plastic. You are going to hit the bricks to search convenience stores, cell phone stores and drug stores to purchase prepaid credit/debit cards. You want the type of prepaid/gift credit card you can top up immediately and walk out with a debit card loaded with funds.

When you purchase your prepaid debit cards next to it on the shelf should be top up cards that you purchase to add money. Most cards have a twenty-four hour spending limit. Some cards have monthly spending limit too. So be aware when choosing your card, you do not want to be caught short.

Also, buy multiple top up cards from different locations. As a backup take a photo of the debit cards and top up activation numbers in case you lose them. Technology is changing and in some places top up cards are not necessary. Now you can bring the debit card to the register and top up directly at the register. The one concern about this is you could be carrying fifty debit cards, which could be lost, stolen or considered suspect.

Metal

Cash may be king but gold does not suck! Gold jewelry is no doubt a portable currency that can be bought and sold anywhere in the world. Hit up the local jewelry district and buy a few pieces of gold. I would suggest buying chains and bracelets since they can be worn and discretely hidden.  Do note you cannot pull a Mr. T and walk through customs with fifty chains around your neck.

Before you buy jewelry, do some quick homework about buying gold and do not be afraid to negotiate, negotiate and negotiate. Avoid buying anything with stones unless you know what you are doing.

Digital

Another way of getting money from Point A to Point B is to use a Western Union type of transfer service. Again, before you make a transaction confirm that you can collect the funds in your disappear destination and that your identification is sufficient enough for pick up. Do not wire an outrageous amount of money that will trigger a red flag. How much that is, I do not know do your homework.

Money Forward

Another option is to open several secure mail drops online. I use the word secure because in this case you should search for a chain store mail drop, not Freaky Frank’s Mail Service. The mail drop has to be reputable because you are going to trust them with your money.

Using the money forward route is risky but sometimes there are no other options. When you open your mail drop, open for one year and pay a few hundred dollars on the account to have “international” express forwarding service.

After your mail drops are set up, buy birthday cards and enclose cash, money orders or prepaid debit cards. Write a nice note to yourself wishing you a happy birthday. Do not ship large amounts of cash it could be stolen.  You could express the envelopes or put your return address from another mail drop you own.

When you need the money from your mail drops, you check into a large chain hotel. You contact the mail drops and have them express your package to the hotel. The front desk will send up to your room when received.

Be discreet and only receive three or four per shipments per hotel and maybe a day or two apart. Getting fifteen international packages in one day to a hotel could appear suspicious.

Art

A common money-laundering scheme is to utilize art. What one does is buy a piece of art for 100k, remove it from the frame, roll it up and place it in a poster tube. Then hop on a plane, land in a new country and do not disclose the value of the painting. Then you sell the painting for the best possible price and now you have X amount of undeclared money in a new country. However, the art route is a burned bridge; law enforcement has become hip to this method.

Lady KGB

Lady KGB was able to secure her funds a few different ways and then she left the city for her new disappear destination. This was not the end of Lady KGB’s work because she was going to be in the hunt and it was important to keep those bad boys she burned busy searching elsewhere. What I did next was create target locations where the predators would search.

Target Locations

A target location gives the impression that you are living in a specific city or recently departed from a city. A constant you will read in this book is about creating false leads. If you do not create false leads, the hunter will most likely discover the correct leads, if that happens adios muchacho.

The person or agency hunting you down will use your phone records, airlines, credit card records, bank records, internet search records and even the records of family, friends and employer. What this means is the hunter has an arsenal of information that could lead to your hiding place. You have only the tool of deception so use wisely.

In the past, I did many favors for law enforcement. It was common for an agency to reach out to a private investigator I knew and ask for information in order to bypass the subpoena process. If we learned anything from Edward Snowden it should be that, no information is safe.

A Bypass the Subpoena Story

One Friday afternoon I get a call from a PI who has a phone number he needs identified for the State Police. The heat busted some dude with a bag full of blow and not wanting to take the pinch the busted dude talks. He was willing to take the police to the house where he scored the drugs but the problem being he does not remember the address since a running partner drove him. However, he does have a phone number for the drug location.

The PI provided me with the phone number and I pretexted the local phone company as repair. Easy as pie but do not try this at home it is seriously illegal! I obtained the subscriber name on the account and the physical location of the drug house.

I gave the information to my client and he forwarded the information to police. The police ask the busted dealer if they drive him around the area could he identify the drug house. The dealer tells them he could and so they cruise the hood. The cops circle a few block and narrow down to the address I provided and eventually they drive down the correct street. The dealer points out the home of where he purchased the drugs. Later that afternoon more drug dealers are in shackles. The subpoena process bypassed. The lesson of this story is not everyone plays by the rules.

VIRTUAL TARGETS

An excellent way to keep a predator off your tail is to create Virtual Targets. These are fake locations that make it appear you are in a city or have recently traveled through a city. Virtual Targets will create confusion and make it costly for the predator to pursue.

With Lady KGB, it was a piece of cake creating virtual targets for the predator to follow. Her predators most likely assumed that she would lay low for a while and then resort to prostitution to maintain an income. I exploited this thought process and posted photos and contact information of Lady KGB offering her salacious services in various cities.

My concern with Lady KGB’s predator was their deep pockets. There was no doubt in my mind that the pimps had access to some kick ass techie. In the Frank M. Ahearn world of disappearing never go toe to toe with a geek, the geek will win every time. Take the battle to the bricks and mortar and utilize deception.

I knew that each posting the predator located of Lady KGB a techie would try to search the origins of the posting. It was extremely important that Lady KGB had no connection with any of the internet postings. I utilize a third party service located in Laos. This way all of the posting came from a city not connected with Lady KGB. The predator had to decide if the leads were worth following. Either way it was a fine act of deception.

When you lay trails for a predator or BIG BROTHER to follow it is vital you do not do not accidentally leave a real trace in the mix. If you are using photos, phone numbers or email addresses ask yourself if there are leads in the content.

If you are in a situation, where you can utilize online ads or postings to further your cause take precautions. The advertisement photo that you use, confirm it does not have any real background identifiers? Perhaps taken in front of an identifiable street sign or a license plate to a car you rented. Maybe there is a billboard advertisement for a supermarket chain like Carrefour’s in Paris, Andorra 2000 in Andorra or Key Foods in New York.

You will need to use two different phone numbers in your bogus ad. One number is for opening the account and the second number is to post in the ad itself. In addition, if you are using prepaid cell phone numbers it is important they be from different carriers and with different area and city codes. Most important, if you do use prepaid cell phone numbers they should be numbers purchased by a third party from different locations. Last but certainly not the least the cell numbers you use should not have any identifiable or traceable numbers to you or your location.

For situations like this, I would use one burner phone, which is a prepaid cell phone used only one time. Then toss out the SIM and the phone. Do not be cheap always dump the phone too.

If you dial a phone number from a SIM card with a 212 area code and a model 051 Cell Phone there will be a connection between the SIM card and the 051 phone. The phone is traceable so burn it!

You will need two different email addresses for the advertisement. One email address is to open the account and the other email address is for the advertisement. Never open the email account yourself, always use a third party. If possible, use two different third parties in different countries.

Do not get seduced by curiosity and wonder if anyone made contact with the email or cell phone. Remember, curiosity kills! When you are creating what it is you need to create always think of it as a mystery. Imagine there are clues in your piece of work. You must play detective and find those clues that could lead to your discovery.

WHAT THEY DON’T TEACH 

YOU AT HARVARD

Pseudocide, the stupid act of faking your death. If you are a white-collar criminal and fake your death, the long arm of the law will, catch you and you will be shipped you up the river.

I want you to repeat after me: “I will never fake my death.” If you are running from BIG BROTHER never, make the mistake and assume BIG BROTHER is stupid. The odds and experience are against you. Take the five, ten or fifty million you stole and simply disappear.

Most likely, you have never faked your death before and no doubt, the murder police who arrive to investigate the scene of your demise are not amateurs in the game of death.

Most people who have faked their death committed the stupid act by water. Some feigned drowning and some feigned shark attack. Either way faking a death by water is the most suspicious death of them all. Let me repeat, faking your death by water is the most suspicious death of them all. Compounding this with missing loot from your firm does not take rocket science to figure out what really took place.

The Un-Zen Master of Pseudocide!

Let me introduce to you the Un-Zen Master of pseudocide Samuel Israel III. In a desperate act to avoid prison, Sammy planned his demise on a bridge in upstate New York. On his car windshield, Sammy scribbled, "Suicide is Painless," a TV show theme song.

Here is Sammy who figured out how to pocket millions of bucks and his great get-away was to write a note on a dirty windshield.  Let us be real -- only a moron of the umpteenth degree would believe that BIG BROTHER would look at what Sammy scribbled on his car and say, “Let’s go home boys -- Sammy leapt to his death.” Wrong!

Sammy and his associate snatched up around $300,000,000 and scribbling on his windshield was one of a few desperate exit plans.  I know I keep repeating this but I find it all so shocking. Three hundred big ones and the exit plan were to scribble in dirt. This crooked capitalist had no walk-away plan or go bag. Did he become so smug and complacent that he convinced himself no one would ever know about his deceit?

The problem with Sammy and the rest of the white-collar dumb asses who have committed or are planning to commit massive fraud are only half a criminal. What they do not teach you at Harvard is crime is a like a stock. You search out different stocks, you evaluate the stock, you buy the stock and you sell the stock for profit.  In the crime world, you search out the crime you want to commit, you evaluate the crime, you commit the crime and you disappear with the take.

It seems fundamental that when you commit a crime you should have an escape plan. Even the eighty-two IQ stick-up- kid knows to run after he robs a liquor store with cash is in hand.

If I stole three hundred million bad boys, I would stash a smack load of greenbacks in some shitty country and buy myself a diplomatic passport or citizenship at the very least.

If you have the balls to steal millions of bucks, have the balls to bribe a foreign government official for protection. A million bucks goes a long way in a third world country.

Sure, it is not Miami but it beats Leavenworth or La Santé. The bottom line is if you have the corrupt brains to create a massive Ponzi scheme, why not put the same effort into disappearing properly.

Sammy is a "Monday Morning Criminal" -- his ship of thievery was Titanic-big, but it was only when his money-boat began to sink, that he scrambled and came up with a hair-brained scheme of escape. By then, all Sammy was doing was patching up a fast sinking ship.  Why patch up a sinking ship when you can afford to buy a big bad beautiful yacht and disappear.

When You Steal Think About Tomorrow!

Tomorrow comes quick and BIG BROTHER will come banging on your door while you are sitting in your ivory tower of thievery. Therefore, do not let the shinning of the gold blur the reality of your pending demise. Do not follow the footsteps of your predecessors and imagine that you have a shot in hell at successfully faking your death.

Faking Your Death is Stupid!

At the very least, open an offshore bank about! When you open an offshore bank account, do so in a country that is not on friendly terms with your own country. There is no guarantee that you will actually get to the money or successfully hide the money but a good try is always admirable.

Be Like a Pirate and Bury Treasure!

Even the pirates of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries knew they had to stash the booty. Buy diamonds, rubies and emeralds and hide them in different parts of the world. Do NOT hide in a safety deposit box. Bury the treasure just like a pirate. Bury your treasure in different countries but do note when you are released you will be a felon. Some countries will not let you into their country so be aware of such issues. Therefore, do a little burying in your home country. Using a fake name buy a piece of land with cash, pay the property taxes for years in advance and bury some stones.

Go Alone!

The idea that you will be able to bring your mate along with you when you are on the run is unrealistic. It is quite possible your mate will drop a dime on you for a lighter sentence.

Going on the run with a mate reduces your success dramatically. Whitey Bulger was on the run for sixteen years, the feds put out a bunch of media about Whitey’s woman, and boom busted! However, Whitey was successful because he was an arch- criminal and had a few hundred grand cash on hand if he needed.

Leave Now!

Why do criminals who embezzle large amounts of money wait for the whip to come down? Where is the sense in that? The bang on the door is coming and you know it. It is better to leave then wait!

Be in the Wind!

When it is time to go just go and do not create an elaborate exit plan, simply slip into the night like the thief you are.

DO NOT GO TO YOUR FUNERAL

On June 30, 2005 48-year-old Patrick McDermott disappeared from a fishing boat, which had left from a marina in San Pedro, California, for an overnight fishing trip. The poor man's absence was apparently unnoticed until July 6 when he failed to show up for a family event. The twenty-two passengers and three crewmembers who had been on board gave inconsistent reports of McDermott’s whereabouts. The only information known was he left a bag onboard the boat.

A Coast Guard investigation, released in November 2008, concluded that McDermott had "most likely" drowned. However, not surprisingly, the circumstances of his disappearance fueled speculation that he faked his own death. He made it onto America's Most Wanted and Dateline NBC. The investigators hired by Dateline believed he may have "disappeared" to Mexico to avoid paying his debts, including eight grand he owed to his ex-wife for child support.

By now, you should be aware of how I feel about faking your death by water. Well, here is another "slick" move to add to the list, DON'T GO TO YOUR OWN FUNERAL!  In the digital world this of course, translates into-- DO NOT GO TO THE INTERNET AND SEARCH YOUR OWN NAME! The Investigators hired by Dateline figured McDermott would not be able to resist searching for information about himself, so they created the now defunct website.

www.FindPatrickMcDermott.com

The long and short of it is that one particular IP address from a seaside community in Mexico continuously searched the website. It did not take a brain surgeon to make the assumptions that Patrick McDermott was probably the person visiting the website. In other words, he went to his own funeral.  Moron! Note of warning, if you do not want to be, written about in Frank M. Ahearn’s next book do not do go to your own funeral.

Know Thyself

Sun Tzu the strategist tells us to know our enemy and know thyself. To be aware is to be alive! The same strategy applies when you disappear from BIG BROTHER or any other threat in your life. You must think like a military strategist and anything less will knock you out of the game. Knowing thyself is more than knowing your online and offline information. Knowing thyself is to know your survival skills and knowing the tracking skills of your enemy. Disappearing is far beyond the idea of going from point A to point B. Disappearing is about being aware of your environment every second of your day.

Every face you pass on the streets in your new world is a threat. The cashier ringing up the milk, the postal worker stuffing mail into your mailbox and the person sitting across from you in a café is all a threat.

Every metro station you enter and exit is a threat. Walking the street and turning the corner is a threat. Even entering your home at night is a threat. The danger you dread can come from anywhere anytime. How you react when confronted by the threat will no doubt determine the success of your freedom.

Mr. Money!

Mr. Money embezzled a million dollars from his employer. He transferred the stolen money to a bank in Kenya. He jumped on a plane, landed in Nairobi and began his new life on the run. Mr. Money soon became bored in the big city and made his way to Diani Beach, a resort area on the coast of Kenya.

The once conservative bean counter fell into the life of a playboy. In a matter of months everyone knew Mr. Money, he was the man throwing money around as if it was fairy dust and infinite. This attracted the wrong woman.

Mr. Money is a dangerous breed of disappear and many fall prey to its seduction. This breed usually has a large bulk of money and only depends on that bulk of money for the rest of their life.

A million bucks is whole bunch of cabbage but it is not enough to play international playboy for the rest of your life. The problem with this pedigree is they do not think beyond their stash. It is one thing to be a playboy if you have five million but a million, it is not happening.

Mr. Money eventually came to his senses and realized that he was burning through his money too quick. He decided to settle down and go into business with his girlfriend. His girlfriend had different ideas and she disappeared with his money. She was kind enough to leave him some spending money. Quickly, Mr. Money fell on hard times and soon became Mr. Homeless. He wandered the streets of Nairobi trying to survive and I am sure it was a living hell.  If you want to see some wretched homelessness living, search images of homeless in Nairobi.

Mr. Homeless could not climb out of his homeless hell and so he turned himself in to the authorities. I guess five to fifteen in his home country seemed more appetizing then his current living conditions. He assumed that his country would extradite him to stand trial. Unfortunately, for Mr. Money his country was in no rush. The Kenyan authorities had no interest in feeding another mouth in jail so they released him back to the streets. Mr. Homeless barely survived on the streets another three months before his country swooped him up.

Mr. Money aka Mr. Homeless did not know thyself. He should have known that a million dollars does not make someone an international playboy. He should have known that spending money like water is stupid. He should have known that his girlfriend only used him for his money. He should have known that if he lost all of his money he could never survive on the streets of an African country.

Mr. Money’s chose Kenya to protect himself against extradition. He also saw the cost of living as inexpensive. This made good sense and definitely walked in the direction of disappearing properly. The decision to move to a resort town was his downfall. His cost of living increased and his lifestyle changed drastically. It is as if he woke up one morning, put on a white suit and became the Don Johnson on Kenya.

An ancient Chinese proverb from the he ever enlightened Frank M. Ahearn: When one throws money around like an idiot, those willing to take money from the idiot will grace him with their presence.

Ultimately disappearing is about freedom. Each decision you make should be in the advancement of your freedom. If a decision comes your way and your answer does not walk you in the direction of freedom something is wrong. Freedom should always come first.

When I was a teenager, I spent some quality time in a drug program. It was kind of like street college for me. I learned how to survive in a completely different way. The program was all about being aware. They had a central philosophy that we followed but what I found most useful were the unwritten philosophies, which they posted all around the house. For me, the idea to be aware is to be alive was the most important philosophy I kept close to me.

To be aware is to be alive is a simple saying but fitting in the world of disappearing, to be aware is to be alive means knowing who you are and knowing what makes you vulnerable. Think people, places and things.

The drug program stressed the point that if you do not want to get high you do not hang out with people who are getting high. If you do not want to lose your freedom, do not hang in places or with people that can compromise your freedom. Ultimately, you are responsible for your own actions that alone can decide your fate.

In your disappear world you need to stay one-step ahead of BIG BROTHER. He is the evil twin lurking the corner and his evil brother BIG BUSINESS is the one who makes it easier for BIG BROTHER to find you around the corner. Always think before you approach. Always think while are in the approach. Always think!

How Would You React?

When faced with a threat or a possible threat you have two choices. Stay and investigate the threat or get out of town immediately. If you stay, you may discover the threat is false but then again you could discover the threat is real. If the threat is real boom goes your life. A situation like this is fifty-fifty and to me fifty-fifty are never good odds when freedom is in the balance.

When faced with the threat of discovery you have the choice to leave immediately. Immediately means go now, and retrieve one of your GO BAGS and BE GONE! Freedom is far more important than anything you are leaving behind.

This means you must always have access to your passport. I personally believe it is best to have your passport on your person. Ideally, if you have two passports you could stash one in a Go Bag and the other in pocket.

Knowing thyself includes knowing what you can live with and what you cannot. You should never keep the items you cannot live without in your home.

Keep these items in a mail drop or storage facility so you can retrieve quickly or arrange to retrieve them at another time.

Assume your predator located your apartment in Munich and you know that you must leave town instantly. Assume that something at your mail drop does not feel right. Go with that instinct and never second guess. The problem you have now is your passport is in the mail drop and you cannot leave without it.  What do you do?  Here is a scenario to make you think somewhat out of the box. Actually, it is probably crazy and unrealistic but here you go.

The Hotel Escapade

You will need to rent two hotel rooms in separate hotels. Hotel A will receive your Go Bag and Hotel B will be where you sleep. The hotels you select should have more than one entrance. Find hotels on streets that offer outside hiding space where you can observe the traffic going in and out of the hotel. Do note this offers BIG BROTHER the same opportunity. 

When you request your mail drop to ship your Go Bag, inquire which shipping company will deliver to Hotel A. Go online and search out the uniforms worn by the postal workers or delivery companies.

Surveillance serves two purposes, to follow and gather intelligence or to wait and capture. I will assume that since you are disappeared you fall under the wait and capture category.

There is no way of knowing if BIG BROTHER discovered your mail drop. If they did, they will know about your delivery request. If that is the case, it is best to flee and take your chances without your gear.

If you are in a situation where you need your Go Bag and have made the decision that you must extract it from Hotel A understand the odds are against you.

Before you walk in blindly to Hotel A and attempt to extract your Go Bag you must do so under the guise that BIG BROTHER or your predator is sitting surveillance on the hotel. That is why you need to prepare the room in Hotel A the night before.

The Night Before

Locate a hardware store or home appliance store and buy two or three timers. These are the type of timers you plug into outlets and turn electric items on and off.

Before you have Go Bag shipped to Hotel A, you will set up the timers. Connect the TV, radio and lamps to go on and off various times. Also, set the phone to do not disturb and hang the do not disturb placard on the door. This will give the appearance you are in your room.               If BIG BROTHER or your predator, is not very smart they just they just might storm the hotel room. In addition, before you exit the room duct tape a towel to the lower part of the door so there is a lot of drag left on the floor. This is to obstruct the view of any cameras slid under the door. Do not forget to pull the drapes and keep your head down when you exit the hotel.

Outdoor Location

Next, you will find a location in the city where you can monitor auto or pedestrian traffic coming and going. Search for a one way in and one way out type of location.

Come the next day you place yourself outside of Hotel A, deciding if surveillance is waiting for you to pick up the package. Coming to this decision is not an easy task. The million dollar question is are you better at spotting surveillance or is the predator better at camouflage. I personally say run now!

After the package arrives, the desk clerk will leave you a message making you aware. Again, I would not attempt extraction of the package it is too risky. If you really need the package, you move to phase two of the hotel escapade.

From a prepaid phone call Hotel A and leave a verbal message with the desk clerk as if you are a different person. The message should confirm a meeting you are having with yourself. Spell out the location and time. The location should be the one way in place you scouted the day before. This is where you will watch and see if a surveillance team shows up.

If a team arrives at the location, it is time to leave town. If it appears no team, shows up you must make a calculated decision.

You make your way back to Hotel A and if you are confident that there is no surveillance, you move forward. However, it is best not to walk up to the hotel clerk and retrieve for your package. You may not have been as observant as you think.

This is a situation where you will use a third party to pick up your package. Call the desk clerk, identify yourself, and explain an associate will be picking up the package. Find someone on the street looking to make a few extra bucks. Tell them to pick up the package at Hotel A and deliver the package to the one way in location.

After the street person enters the hotel for the pickup, time how long it takes them to exit. If there is, a significant delay in time apprehension is now a possibility. Walk away

If the street person walks out of the hotel with no delay it is, possible a surveillance is occurring. You must carefully follow the street person so they do not run off with your package. When you are confident, they will deliver your package make haste to the one-way location and wait. This is when you will decide if you will gamble with your future.

I SAY RUN!

What I just explained is sheer craziness and to even consider something like the hotel escapade is nuts. Knowing yourself is to know if you are smart enough to leave and not dumb enough to stay and go head to head with a mighty beast. Playing intelligence and counter intelligence with masters of the game is playing with confinement. Never put yourself in a situation where you must play such a game. Always walk away.

STRETCH CONNECTIONS

In the Virtual Entity Chapter I explained about the pizza delivery scenario where the teen goes to the schoolyard and has another teen deliver the pizza. This saves the delivery teen from getting his teeth knocked out.

When you are utilizing anything digital or an item with a connection, ask yourself if pressing enter, send or download can get your teeth knocked out? If it can, walk away and figure out another way to push the buttons.

One of the keys of being a Virtual Entity and disappearing from BIG BROTHER is to control the traces you create. One of the reasons prison are filled to the brim with criminals is because they leave evidence behind. Sometimes this is a good thing depending on the crime. Anything violent is a drag!

When you plan your disappearance, you should see yourself as a criminal committing a crime therefore you must detect all possible traces you are leaving behind.

A friend I grew up with spent most of his life in and out of prison for armed robbery. The last time he was walking the streets a free man he stuck up a supermarket. He walked in the supermarket, grabbed a cart and shuffled through the store as if he were a customer shopping. At the main counter, he pulled a gun and split with the cash. Several hours later, he is back in the poky.

While he was wheeling the cart and playing the part of the customer loading the wagon with milk, sugar and other items he was not wearing any gloves. It was fingerprint city and this made him a three-time loser. He left footprints behind.

Footprint and fingerprints are one in the same and both can lead to your downfall. Ask yourself if you are leaving fingerprints behind in the supermarket.

If you utilize a third party properly, you can protect your identity and location. The object is to make the third party your button pusher, who leaves the fingerprint behind.

What is very cool about third party services is you can hire an assistant in Norway who creates your digital footprints in Norway today and tomorrow you hire one in Manila who creates footprints in Manila tomorrow.

Setting Up Third Party Service

I have already explained how to set up third party assistants but I like to explain steps more than once.

Use Once & Dump

Prepaid Debit Card.

Email Addresses

Prepaid Cell Phones

Virtual Numbers

How to Email

You are Frank M. Ahearn and you need to email a chapter of your new book to your publisher. Frank M. Ahearn is far off the grid and does not want to be located. The question is how does he get the book chapter to his publisher? Frank leaves his home and searches for a non-traceable internet connection. The connection between Frank and his publisher is non-traceable not the technology itself.

Option A: Copy and paste the chapter into an email address and save email as a draft.

Option B: Post the chapter on a private website you built.

Third Party Assistant

Option A: Frank setups a prearranged situation with his Third Party Assistant. Each morning they check email address A and copy the draft email with forwarding instructions. They close out email account A and open up email account B. The third party assistant pastes the information into the email and they press send.

AGAIN

Step 1: You login to email account A, and paste information into email and save as draft.

Step 2: Third party assistant logs in to email address A, copies the content.

Step 3: Third party assistant logs out of email account A.

Step 4: Third party assistant logs into email address B, sends content to email address C.

A different third party in a different country checks email address C. That assistant copies and paste information into email address D and sends to intended recipient.

Be Aware!

Do note the email provider does have a record of the draft content. This by no means that the emails cannot be traced, however, there are drop points in the connection that make it more difficult to track. It would be wise to change up your third party assistant every few days and do not become too dependent of any one of them.

Complacency Kills!

As long as you are not playing in the realm of Snowden or Dread Pirate Roberts you should be safe. Make sure your third party assistant deletes all the content in the folders when the task is complete. You could also switch up Step 1 and paste the information onto a password protected website you built. You would provide the third party assistant with a password to access the site and they will copy the information you want emailed.

Obtaining Email Addresses

It is best to have a minimum of three third party assistant in three different countries like Bangladesh, Mongolia and Korea. You will be able to find multi-language assistants in most countries. Have each of the assistants obtain several email addresses for you to utilize. Instruct them to create emails from local email providers.

When closing out an email address in Thailand have a third party assistant in Norway close out the email address. If the email address is in Thailand is compromised by your predator it will show final access came from Norway.

The difference between disappearing from BIG BROTHER and disappearing from a stalker or any other lunatic is BIG BROTHER has international access and deep pockets. If your ex or another is hunting you and they have deep pockets, it would be wise to view them as BIG BROTHER. This means that if they discover the email address account in Thailand they will have no issues paying for someone to access information in Norway.

Communicating this way is traceable with means and access. You should look at it like a hangman’s rope. It is your job to make the rope as long as possible, like Thailand to Norway. It is your predator’s job to tighten the rope. As long as you do not get too close to that noose, you should be ok. When closing out the different email accounts have the third party assistant change the profile information in a different language prior to deletion.

Receiving Emails

Receiving emails can be tricky and you must always be aware of your actions. Let us assume you need to have an email so certain people can contact you. This select circle of people will contact you on lyingforaliving@gmail.com or something. Do not use any identifiers in the email like FMA, or FrankA.

When sending emails you want to stretch the rope between you and the connecting parties as far as possible. Some of the suggestions offered may be an inconvenience but better to go the distance then hearing gotcha!

Schedule

TPA= Third Party Assistant

Monday – TPA Denmark

Denmark checks email A for emails received and copies content. Denmark signs on to Email B and sends to Email C.

TPA China

Answers Email C and posts it onto to a secure website you built.

Again, you can have your TPA send the emails to another email address you set up or you could have them post to a secure website. A different TPA can gather the information from the secure website and will either email you or paste the email into another website.

Wednesday – TPA Senegal

Senegal copies email information from secure website and post it on another website.

Continue the rotation with Thursday, TPA in Romania and Friday a TPA in Italy.

With the pizza delivery scenario, it is possible that the bully knew the teen worked at the pizza shop and ordered the food as a ruse to catch him. It is also possible the bully put the schoolyard kid in a headlock and squeezed out of him where the pizza teen is waiting.

However, the pizza teen has read all of Frank M. Ahearn’s books and is not waiting in the schoolyard but across the street observing incase the bully shows up. The pizza teen stretched his connection by not waiting in the schoolyard.

BIG FOOT DOES NOT EXIST

There are three ways to obtain an identity (besides the one you are born with, of course). You can buy one, steal one or create one. What many people do not seem to realize, is that obtaining a fake identity in one of these ways is like searching for Bigfoot.

We have all heard the stories about the big hairy beast known as Big Foot, but we do not know anyone who has actually seen him. Imagine hanging out with your friends and the topic of Bigfoot comes up. One friend tells you he knows a guy who knows a guy, who can get you to see Bigfoot.

This intrigues you, so you arrange a meeting with this supposed Bigfoot connection. I know this sounds somewhat crazy but it is no different from meeting a potential connection to obtain a new identity.

Next thing you know, you are sitting in a bar in the middle of nowhere disguised with a fake moustache and glasses waiting for Mr. Bigfoot connection. Then it happens, Vinnie Boombotz arrives and dazzles you with stories about sightings of Bigfoot in Canada, Bigfoot in the Ukraine, Bigfoot in Staten Island and in Sussex, New Jersey. Next Vinnie pulls out a few fuzzy photos-- the blur looks like Bigfoot. The problem is you cannot tell if the photo is photo-shopped or real. Then Vinnie promises you he can get you to Bigfoot—it is just a question of the fee.

This, my friends, this is the moment of truth which will determine whether you've reached the age of reason or are simply still a dumbass.

One of three things will happen:

1. You get up and walk away.

2. Vinnie rips you off.

3. You are busted.

Perhaps you are thinking that there is a fourth possibility -- namely, that the ID Vinnie is selling is, in fact, authentic. However, this fourth option does not exist because you have no way of verifying the credentials.

Could you determine the authenticity of Babe Ruth’s signature on a baseball just by looking at it? I would venture to say that 99.9% of us could not distinguish a real passport from an excellent fake. So, how do you plan to test the identity?

Types of Identity

New Identity 1: An identity created from scratch. This identity has a real birth certificate with a real social security number assigned to the identity. This type of identity one would get in the witness protection program. All I have to say about obtaining this type of identity is good luck.

Created Identity 2: This identity one creates from scratch, usually known as the Tombstone method. Which is walking in the graveyard, finding a child who died at a young age and obtaining their birth certificate. Very difficult to do these days but some still get away with it.

Fake Identity: An identity made of all fake documents. These types of identities have bogus social security numbers and other unreal information assigned. They are good for subletting apartments and used for jobs off the book. This type of identity one would use for a quick flash.

Stolen Identity: An identity stolen from another. I find this to be the most dangerous of identities to use. There are so many questions that one needs to answer before using a stolen identity. If you are buying a stolen identity from Vinnie, you need to rely on him to tell you the truth about the identity.

1) Is it a real, fake, or a stolen identity?

2) Is the person still alive?

3) Is the person in prison?

4) Is the person wanted by law enforcement?

5) Does the person have any felony convictions?

6) Are there tax liens against the social security   

number?

7) Are others using the identity?

8) Does the person owe back child support?

The questions could go on and I am sure Vinnie will be happy to answer all of them for you to put you at ease. Unfortunately, Vinnie is a criminal and not in the business of truth.

There are also a slew of books out there purporting to reveal "the secrets" to obtaining a new identity, but they are all crap. The authors who present these useless and dangerous strategies do not give a rat’s ass about what happens to you. They only care about the coins you add to their pockets.

Think about it-- you can buy Brain Surgery for Dummies, but that does not mean you can crack open a skull with a Black & Decker and go to work.

For all you know, the author of the new identity book might actually be a pastry chef and a master of cannoli’s, with no real experience on the subject. Always consider the source. What I share is from years of experience in the trenches of-- finding people, disappearing people and manipulating digital information.

The bottom line is that using an identity other than your own is a crime. If you plan to use a fake ID for financial reasons, you are becoming an identity thief. However, you already know this.

What you need to know is Big Foot does not exist. If you insist on taking, the Big Foot tour I would suggest going alone and hunting down the beast on your own. I know the million-dollar question is how.

THE SWISS FAMILY BRADY BUNCH

I began communicating with a potential client who lived in Zurich and he wanted to disappear with his wife and children. They both had three children each from a prior marriage. It was like the Swiss Family Brady Bunch.

Children Services in their city received an anonymous call reporting the apartment the family lived in was not suitable for eight people and that potential abuse was happening. When the authorities arrived, a confrontation occurred and the parents were hauled off to the police station and Family Services took the children. The reason the parents lived in the small apartment is they were saving money to buy a house.

A lawyer was hired and it took several months for vindication to come way of the parents. Not long after the children’s return, family services showed up again to discuss another anonymous call.

A few months passed with several more visits from family services but there was never any evidence of abuse. It became obvious to the parents that someone had a vendetta and they believed it was a family member.

It appeared that all was quiet but the family had a sour taste for the town and its local law enforcement. They desired a new start and so they purchased a home in a neighboring country.

Three months into their new home the local police arrived at their door and requested, they come to the police station for an interview. Further inquiry revealed that an anonymous call was received which divulged the investigations from their home country. The parents explained that they were cleared of any wrongdoings, but the local police still had a job to do. The situation was terrifying and the fear of losing their children in a foreign country was overwhelming. They packed what they needed and left their home.

The Swiss Family Brady Bunch contacted me and asked if I could help them disappear. All of the information they provided came through phone conversation and email. Due diligence is important when deciding to work with a new client. I was adamant that if they wanted my help I had to meet them and review all original documents. The next day I was on a plane to the land of chocolate and fine watches.

This is where the chapter takes a bit of a detour. When I landed in Zurich Airport, I had to go to the ticket counter and speak with a booking agent. While I was waiting in line there was an extremely unhappy American in between two police officers at a window. I overheard the ticket agent telling the police officers that she is trying to contact his airline to put him on the next outbound flight.

From what I gathered, the American was nervous about entering Switzerland with a felony conviction and decided to be honest with the border agent. His honesty got him denied entry into the country.

All fairness to Switzerland, I have no clue what the felony was for, and they have the right to refuse anyone entry into their country. 

The instant access of information has turned our big world into a small pond. Traveling internationally use to be a piece of cake, even if you were socially undesirable with a felony conviction. Many countries have lifted the drawbridge to particular elements of society.

Even big bad Martha Stewart did not step into the UK because of her criminal conviction and she only lied about a phone call. I am not saying that countries should allow drunks and criminals on to their soil; I am just saying it sucks if you are one of the unwanted. 

What always concerned me when crossing borders is a customs agent typing my name online and discovering the type of business I have. I do not do anything illegal but people tend to assume the negative about the disappearing business.

Eventually my paranoia began getting the best of me. I began to assume that my number would soon be up and someday I would become an international undesirable. I know it is crazy but things like this run through my mind. Since my paranoia was not leaving me, alone I figured I would get my dual citizenship.

I am fortunate that my grandparents were born in Ireland, which made me eligible for Irish citizenship through, decent. The process is pretty simple and strait forward, however, not in the world of Frank M. Ahearn. There are certain documents required like grandparent’s birth records and marriage certificate.

I ran into a huge snag trying to obtain their marriage certificate, it turns out none was to be found. I contacted the local church and was able to have someone hand search for proof of marriage and there it was.

I sent in my application to the Irish consulate and received a quick rejection. On the long form of my birth certificate there happens to be a typo in my mother’s maiden name. This was a super headache. I had to go to the city that issued my birth certificate and show proof of my mother’s maiden name. The next step was to send the papers to the state for their review and correction. The funny thing is they did not send me a new birth certificate with my mother’s maiden spelled correctly. No, they crossed out the old name and hand wrote the new name accompanied by someone’s initials and the seal of NY. It looked like a forgery.

With great anticipation, I sent my application back to the Irish consulate. A few weeks later, an envelope arrived and I ripped it open. The letter read in Gaelic “LEABHAR TAIFEADTA BREITHEANNA COIGRICHE” which means Foreign Births Entry Book Certificate.

Yes Sir!

You should search the country where your people come from. You may be eligible for foreign birthright. Here is a list of some countries that offer citizenship through descent.

After I received my Irish citizenship, I began preparing for the next step in my virtual existence. I applied for my Irish passport. Then something seriously strange happened. An employee from the Irish Consulate contacted me and explained there was a mistake with the serial number on my Irish birth certificate. They asked me to return my Irish birth certificate and they would reissue a corrected birth certificate.

A mistake on my US birth certificate and now a mistake on my Irish birth certificate, somewhat Kafkaesque. Being paranoid, I wondered if this were some sort of BIG BROTHER conspiracy. I did not want to send back the birth certificate I was sure it was some type of ploy to recall my citizenship. Although, I knew I had to return the birth certificate, it was useless paper. I reluctantly adhered.

A few days later, I received a message from my mail drop that there is an envelope from the Irish Consulate. I figured this was my Irish Dear John letter shuffling me off to non-Ireland Buffalo or something. I was wrong the envelope had my corrected birth certificate. I was an official Irish citizen. Woohoo!

Important to know not all countries allow their citizens to hold dual citizenship. I suggest you do some deep research so not to jeopardize your current citizenship.

After I received my Irish birth certificate, I applied for my Irish passport. Within a few weeks, a package arrived with my shiny red passport sporting a gold harp on the cover. Wow! The passport took me to an odd place in my head where I realized I no longer needed to serve one Cesar but could choose the Cesar that best fits me. Besides the global plus of the citizenship and passport, I felt proud to be an actual Irish citizen.

For those you who are unable to obtain citizenship though descent there are other ways to obtain a citizenship or second passport. If you type in a search engine “second passport”, you will find pages and pages of companies that assist in getting you a second passport. Most of the sites looked the same and offered the same basic information. They all offer promises, promises and more promises.

I would not use an online company to obtain something as important as a citizenship or second passport. Most of the websites kicked out the same names of countries such as Paraguay, Cambodia, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominican Republic, Cyprus, Belize and Panama. You can search government websites directly and determine if such programs are available and if you are eligible. Your biggest obstacle is language but your Third Party Assistant can help.

A few companies out there offer Diplomatic Passports from a variety of nations. A Diplomatic

Passport is the Holy Grail of passports, however, not easy to obtain.

There is a fascinating documentary titled The Ambassador with Mads Brügger who poses as a diplomat in central Africa and secretly films his wheeling and dealing. It is a great film and I suggest you check it out.

Websites and how to books should be used as roadmaps to your journey not a bible cover to cover.

Do it Thy Self

Back to Zurich airport and the American felon. While the airline employee looked into my travel details, I overheard the other airline employee tell the police officers that a plane has arrived and the felon can board. Bummer

For all I know the felon could have been a degenerate horse molester. Even BIG SWISS BROTHER has a right to deny entry to such miscreants. The moral of this sad story is the doorway to countries can slam on you. All because of past mistakes, perhaps now is the time to do something about it, such as dual citizenship. I watched as they carted the American away and one final thought came to mind, more Swiss chocolate for me.

Onward!

The next day I met the Swiss Family Brady Bunch in

a hotel room, rug rats and all. The parents tell me their story, it sounds sane, and they appear to be normal people. I could not find any red flags or reasons why I should not help them. They provided me with all of the documents I requested, not that I could read them, since they were in a foreign language. Six hours later the family left the hotel room. By the way, I would never invite a client to my actual hotel room; I was sleeping on the other side of the city.

After I redacted the identifiers on the legal documents, I met a lawyer who interpreted everything. From the lawyers point of view everything the Swiss Family Brady Bunch explained appeared to true.

The parents wanted a secure location where they could exist somewhat off the grid, a place where they did not need to register their children for school or deal with intrusive family members. Originally, they considered moving to the US and joining an Amish and community. However, they chose to move to a commune in a Latin America. The commune was more suited to their personals needs. The Swiss Family Brady Bunch is long gone. I wish them the best!

Adios Swiss Family Brady Bunch!

When I began working on this book I mentioned the title to different people, they assumed that only criminals needed to disappear from BIG BROTHER.

Again, it is the mentality, that if you do nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about. This is so far from the truth.

Persecution is nothing new to government and when it trickles down to a local level, it can be rather dangerous if one does not have the means to combat. The Swiss Family Brady Bunch found themselves the victims of what they believed was government persecution. They lost all faith in law enforcement and the system and believed it was better to exist outside of society. This is quite unfortunate but sometimes the only remedy is to disappear.

AMERICANS NEED NOT APPLY

If there is one place in the digital world where I can sink my head into and get lost is on TED.com. If you want, an interesting perspective of what is happening in different parts of the world or new technologies; TED is a cool place to discover. It is never short of intelligent information.

One individual I discovered on TED is Mikko Hypponen who is a computer security expert and a columnist. He gave an amazing talk about the NSA and their intrusive spying not just on Americans but on Europeans too. He was kind of funny saying if he has to have a BIG BROTHER it should be a European BIG BROTHER not an American one, good point!

Mikko hit on an important issue that I believe could become a problem for Americans in the future. I am paraphrasing here but Mikko had a point as to why European Corporations are still doing business with American corporations if they know BIG BROTHER is spying them on. Would you continue doing business with a foreign company if you knew their government extracted emails and phone communication? How safe would your corporate secrets be?

If you are in a business that deals with proprietary information, such issues should force you to make change. How do you know that some bent government worker does not capitalize on the information mined? What would happen if international companies began boycotting US companies because of US spying, not a stretch of the imagination my friend.

Now we move on to some real American rejection. For those of you who have attempted to open a bank account online in a foreign country I am sure you have come across the dreaded question. Are you an American Citizen? Answering yes is usually a one-way ticket to need-not-apply-ville. That is not to say some foreign banks will not open an account if you are an American citizen just most will not.

BIG BROTHER is making it seriously difficult for Americans to bank outside the borders of the US. This is to allegedly combat tax evasion, money laundering, terrorism and drug money. I understand this to a degree but BIG BROTHER is cracking down on international banking as well as stealing our private information and communications. Where does it stop? How much do we need to give up for a safer country?

I feel like BIG BROTHER swings with the ideology of with us or against us. A true democratic government should understand and respect that its citizens are individuals not herds of sheep. In my opinion, BIG BROTHER has come to ignore the American citizen and has placed government agenda first. It does not take a genius to recognize that many American are truly disgusted with BIG BROTHER’S place in the world. Be it war, foreign aid and dictating its idea of democracy to foreign countries but forgetting about democracy at home.

BIG BROTHER is an extortionist who wants every penny possible and for a country that stood its ground against excessive taxation. We sure laid down like lambs to slaughter.

Perhaps all those Senatorial and Congressional health plans should go up on the chopping block or at the very least reduced to compensate for tax issues. It is obvious the idea of government service is an act of the past.

We are entering a time in society where the government has gone off the rails accessing our so-called private information. Worst part is there does not seem to be a stop sign in view. Even if there was a stop sign, can we believe they would stop?

Law enforcement has taken an outlandish liberty with our liberties. I guess the slogan life liberty and the pursuit of happiness should change to life and pursuit of citizen information. I think we have crossed the Rubicon.

There are many reasons one should not solely depend on the security and solvency of their country. Look into Greece and Cyprus. Their economy crashed and the Cyprus government planned to seize it citizen’s bank accounts to bail out the country.

Could you imagine not being able to take your money from your bank account because the dumb ass politicians screwed up so bad? I say have all the

Senators, Congress and Bankers sell their homes and liquidate their assets. We could also feed them to the lions and sell pay-per-view tickets that would be bigger than the Super Bowl intermission.

THE UN-ZEN ACT OF DARWINISM

I share with you the epic adventure of a mild mannered Brit named John Darwin. One after afternoon John Darwin went out for a peaceful canoe ride. However, later that evening his wife noticed that John did not return home for supper. Mrs. Darwin phoned the local authorities who investigated and discovered pieces of John’s canoe and a lone oar floating about.

The brilliant detectives decided John Darwin slept with fish. Mrs. Darwin contacted the insurance company and the pension company. They sent Mrs. Darwin payments somewhere in the neighborhood of nine hundred thousand pounds, that my friend is a whole lot of kipper.

Mrs. Darwin goes about her business of being a merry old widow for several years. One day out of the blue like Lazarus, John Darwin rises from the dead and walks into a UK police station.  He tells the police he lost his memory.

The problem with doing stupid things today is the media. If you are declared, dead and you rise back to life people and the media will snoop. It is natural that we want to hear the story. John became the center of attention in the UK Media, part hero and part mystery. The questions rolled out and the big one being, where was John Darwin? Let us look at why he was able to fake his death by water.

Yes John Darwin broke the cardinal rule of faking ones death by water.

The question is why did it work for him and how did he get away with the crime.

John Darwin

No Pending Arrest

No Pending Criminal Cases

Not Facing Prison Sentence

No Accusation of Criminal Acts

No Accusation of Ill Acts With farm animals

Just Checking

John appeared to be a regular person, a regular husband a regular father and a regular grandfather. There were no apparent red flags in Darwin’s life to make law enforcement think he faked his death.

For face value, Mrs. Darwin appeared as a happy wife, good mother and loving grandmother. There seemed to be no reason to suspect any foul play on her part. It was an open and shut case, John Darwin had been declared dead like lead.

The important fact to notice is the Darwin’s came across as regular people with no bones in the closet. They appeared to have no out of the ordinary issues or any apparent disharmony in their domestic relationship. If you cannot you cannot say the same in your life vote against faking your death.

Back to John Darwin and his huge blunder. It is one thing to fool law enforcement and the media once but to try to fool them a second time is over ballsy and twice as stupid. Darwin’s plan was to reintroduce himself back into society by claiming he had amnesia.

This is stupid, stupid and more stupid. If you successfully faked your death and your wife has was paid big money stay dead.

Recap!

John went for a canoe ride

Wife reports him missing

Police investigate

John Darwin declared dead

Wife gets a canoe load of money

Time passes

John Darwin walks into police station

John claims he lost his memory

At this point in John’s return, the Darwin’s were probably, wishing John were truly dead. The big brilliant plan of returning to society took on water. Darwin figured he would walk into the police station and they would send him home and reunite him with Mrs. Darwin. Wrong!

Mr. & Mrs. Darwin never figured that John would become front-page news worldwide and the biggest story on top of the hours. The whole world from New Zealand to New York wanted to know what happened to John Darwin a regular where’s Waldo mystery.

Society has drastically changed where the average person can play journalist and investigator. To a certain degree when one commits a crime and if it is publicized one must be aware that “Computer Doe” could be on the tail. Computer Doe is the person who finds interest in your story and becomes a social investigator. They play on search engines searching your information to see if there is anything, they can find to blow you out of the water.

Some Computer Doe discovered a smoking gun in the John Darwin web of deceit. A photo of John and his wife-smiling ear-to-ear as if they pulled off the great train robbery. The photo was from the building association where they purchased a condominium in Panama. Post his demise into the angry waters.

Darwin’s boat of crime soon began to sink. The authorities were ripping apart his life and finding major evidence of fraud. The important question here is why did John reintroduce himself into society? What was his game plan? John Darwin’s downfall was probably being bored with his wife and had the desire to move on.  So say the whispers and gossipers. If that were the case, he should have done so under the palm trees of Panama.

Mistakes

Involved Another

Photo Taken Post Pseudocide

Returned

Claimed Amnesia

Underestimated Police, Media & Public

John Darwin did the old grave robbery trick to obtain a new identity. He stole the identity of a month old baby. To be honest I find it astounding that this actually worked. Either way it is a risky trick and very rarely works in modern societies. I guess the UK needs to hone up on their technology.

The story closes with Darwin’s taking a long vacation in Her Majesty’s finest prison.

If you fake your death and it is successful stay dead!

SOME LISTS

I am always asked why people want to disappear and I explain that it usually comes down to violence or money. The money people want a better life and so do the danger people. When you break that down it is all about freedom. It could be freedom from an abusive relationship, a way of life, the law, intrusive government, the daily grind or even mediocrity. Again, it is all about freedom.

Seeking freedom through disappearing can be tricky. Sometime those who want to disappear feel compelled to use methods that can compromise their freedom. Freedom is never a simple act of A to B. There are tools and rules you must follow.

While you are devising your exit plan, continuously ask yourself if the road you are creating will lead to freedom because freedom should always be in the scope.

I believe it important to itemize your disappear plan into several different list. Creating a list can be of service while searching and reviewing your exit plan. An individual I consulted with planned on disappearing to South America where he was interested purchasing beachfront property. The property was nice and affordable. He did his homework, searched and confirmed that electricity and water was available to the property lot. He forgot to search for internet services and eventually discovered there was none. Another client I consulted with needed to disappear because of a violent ex-spouse. As we were planning the process, the client never mentioned that she had a rare disease required rare medicine.

When I researched the medicine, I discovered that it was not a commonly prescribed drug. When I contacted several pharmacies in her soon to be new land, I learned that none of them carried the needed medicine. We had to figure out how she was going to order her medicine without leaving a trace, via the purchases. A necessity such as medicine could be a major disappearing obstacle.

What Are Your Obstacles?

I am not going to fill the pages with a long list of questions or suggestions of what you should put down on your list. Take some time and search relocation sites and you will find list after list after list of helpful ideas.

The Big Good Bye

Last Will & Testament certainly a sad piece of business. However, one must consider what happens if they kick the bucket. If you have three hundred grand in a bank account and a beautiful house on the beach. Who gets the assets when you are ten toes up?

If your attitude is, you do not care because you hate everyone you are leaving in your wake. I say do bit of good and leave it all to me and if that does not work for you give it to a charity. You may need to draw up a new Will in your new land but be cautious and investigate if Wills are public record.

I have consulted with individuals who have come into stacks of money and these lucky souls will never have a financial woe again.

I have also spoken with others who have what they believe to be a huge amount of money and they believe they will never have a financial woe again. Truth is one of them will definitely run out of money and if they do not have a backup plan, they will end up on the streets or back where they came from just like our friend in Africa.

I am against burning bridges no one ever knows what waits around the tricky and sometime evil corner of life. It may not be that predator but a natural disaster or a sickness giving you three months to live. What happens then? Can you return home? Will your family and friends take you into their home after you burned them?

FREEDOM: The dictionary defines freedom as, a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restraints or restriction. Sounds real good. Freedom is also one of those words that can hold many definitions. There is conceptual freedom, which is an ideology one believes, and then there is physical freedom where and how.

What is your freedom?

As I have explained, my objective is to keep the concept of obtaining freedom as the focus. Last year I had a conversation with Mr. Goodbye who wanted to disappear. He and his wife were in the middle of a divorce and he did not want to give her a dime. He did not hide the fact that he truly hated her. I try to avoid these types of clients since I am in need of positive karma.

I tried to persuade Mr. Goodbye not to go the route of burning his wife and take care of business properly. He soon revealed that he was closing a business deal that would put a million green ones in his pockets.  His plan was to pull a Jack Kerouac, put it all in a backpack and go on the road but in South America, somewhat crazy in my opinion.

Mr. Goodbye was cryptic in conversation and something did not sit right. He had the means to give his wife her piece of the pie and walk away clean. I decided to do some snooping and I discovered that Mr. Goodbye owned four rug rats. I have done some things in life but never burned a bunch of little kids.

There was no way I was going to do business with Mr. Goodbye, just not my flavor of tea. I tried to talk some sense into him and show him that his plan was a long term lose plan. His passport would expire in four years and by the time he needed to renew it; there would be a warrant for his arrest for nonsupport.

What is the point of seeking freedom if the road you take creates further legal problems, which can take your freedom away? I reached my tipping point and explained to Mr. Goodbye that we were not going to do business together. A few day afterwards, I receive a consultation request from him again. He had one question, how could he could smuggle one million dollars out of his country. I hung up on him.

BEFORE YOU GO LIST

Sell House

Sell Car

Pay off Bills

Cancel Credit cards

Cancel Home Services – Cable – Electric

In the past, I suggested deviating all identifiers on all accounts. For example, I suggested changing Frank M. Ahearn to Frank G. Ahearn and eventually change Frank to Hank. If your date of birth is June 14 1960, I suggested deviating it to July 16, 1961. This type of strategy makes sense when being pursued by a predator or angry ex-husband but not by BIG BROTHER.

With all the eyes in the sky and creepy hands grabbing data BIG BROTHER already has your information and can easily recognize the lies. Instead of creating disinformation on your various accounts, I suggest you pay them off and go the way of the ghost.

The Freedom List

Money

Ability to Earn

Opportunity

Mobility

Passport

Dual Citizenship

Where Will You Go

The Block List

Lack of Money

No Earning Potential

Medical Issues

Legal Issues

Marriage

The Needs List

Personal

Passport – up-to-date

Banking Tools

Money – Cash - Credit

Medical – Files - Medicine

Contact List – Family – Friends – Business

Electronics – Computer - Phones

Business

Website

Merchant Services

Banks

Business Contact

Assets

Communications

What If List

Imagine it is 1995 and you have disappeared to Monserrat. You purchased a home and set up a small roadside business. A month later the volcano erupts and destroys more than half of the island including your home and business. What will you do?

Be aware earthquakes, floods, tornados, wildfires, hurricanes and political overthrows all are realities and possibilities. These misfortunes happen to ordinary people who have ordinary lives. They can even happen to the disappeared.

Research and evaluate the safety and security of your new patch of land. Never shrug off the potential of catastrophic events and never assume it will not happen to you.

The Disaster List

The Disaster List should include a backup plan. What happens if the predator locates you, what happens if a natural disaster occurs, what happens if you go bankrupt, what happens if the government falls, what happens if you lose it all?

To a certain degree, disappearing to a new land is no different from relocating to a new job. However, the difference is if you relocate for a new job and all plummets, you have family and friends in the wings to assist. Being disappeared you may not have that safety net and this is why you must create your own safety net.

Outside Go Bag

Even when life is fine, it would be wise to have an outside Go Bag stashed. This Go Bag should be located outside the country where you reside. Look at this bag as a lifeline.

Financial Tools

Access is key to being a successfully disappeared person and becoming complacent can compromise all. Never put all of your eggs into one Go Bag. If you reside in Country A put some of your money away in Country B.

Think Rainy Day! Think What If!

MR. BIGGS

Some of you are thinking you will never return home and believe that to be fact. However, even the most hardcore of disappeared persons sometime yearn to return to the nest.

Meet Mr. Biggs, not a moniker I prescribed but Ronald Arthur "Ronnie" Biggs who was part of the great train robbery in the UK. After the robbery in 1963, one of the crew was supposed to burn down a farmhouse and destroy the evidence. There was no flame lit and Scotland Yard found Mr. Biggs fingerprint on a ketchup bottle. That is what I call the fluke factor. It is the thing you never expect, the thing that delivers you to the man.

While Mr. Biggs sat in the big house facing thirty long at Her Majesties finest hotel he escaped and became the focus of a worldwide manhunt. He bought a facelift in Paris and made off to the land of kangaroos with his wife and children. He stayed there a few years but the heat came down and Ronnie Biggs fled to Brazil.

In Brazil, Mr. Biggs lived a colorful life and became somewhat of a local celebrity. Then in 1981, a group of ex-British soldiers out for a reward kidnapped him. They took him on a boat, sailed the seas and broke down in Barbados. The police in Barbados rescued them but it turned out that Barbados had no extradition treaty with the UK and allowed Mr. Biggs to return to Brazil.

Eventually the UK and Brazil created an extradition treaty and they wanted Mr. Biggs. The Brazilian government said no, no, no and allowed Mr. Biggs to remain in Brazil.

Thirty something years after the great train robbery Mr. Biggs voluntarily returned to the UK and went to prison. His release from prison came two days before his 80th birthday. Mr. Biggs died in 2013.

Many speculated that Mr. Biggs surrendered himself to the UK for much needed medical services that were not available in Brazil. Mr. Biggs son suggested that his father wanted to walk into a pub as an Englishman one more time and buy a pint. Mr. Biggs spent a life on the run only to end up in the place he desperately avoided. Do not read solely about the tools of disappearing but read about the lives of others who have disappeared.

VIRTUAL TOOLS

As a Virtual Entity I attempt to create a Go Bag in most foreign cities I visit. For me freedom is always the focus and the endgame. To disappear you need two items, financial instruments and travel documents.

You may not have the opportunity to travel but that should not stop you from attempting to acquire your disappear instruments online. Instruments being prepaid debit cards, prepaid money cards, foreign currency, transfer accounts like and online merchant accounts that accept credit cards.

In the past, the most difficult part of setting up virtual tools in a foreign country was the language barrier. This is not really an issue anymore since the creation of online translation tools but let us not place too much stock in their clarity. I suggest utilizing a third party assistant for translation.

Although, the best asset in any foreign city is a local realtor, they know all. What I do is search online for an apartment or house for sale. I do not search for a ten million dollar penthouse but something in the one or two hundred thousand range. I contact a local realtor and explain I will be visiting the city and I am interested in viewing an apartment.

You do not pick the ten million dollar apartment because this will make you a big fish to the realtor. The realtor will want to know all about you and will search you online. With this said you create a cover story before contacting the realtor.

Prior to heading to a foreign city, I create my fake online identity that I travel under and use for communication purposes. The identities I build are all self-employed.

Never, ever, never, ever, ever build a website and profile yourself as a licensed individual like a lawyer, doctor, accountant or other type of licensed individual. This is illegal.

Having a cover website will satisfy the curiosity of the realtor. Remember to do this work use your Third Party Assistant or from a computer where your identity cannot be connected with. After you make a connection with a realtor, you will hit them up for a variety of information.

My first question to the realtor is if there are local message boards like Craigslist or Back Page where I can place an advertisement for an assistant for hire. Most realtors provide me with websites where I can place the ad and they usually refer someone for the position. I thank them for the help but I avoid using their referral. I prefer to keep all contacts separate.

I review the message boards the realtor provided. If the boards are not in English, I put them through a translator and slowly make my way around. If the language barrier is too difficult, I use my Third Party Assistant to create the ad for me.

Businessperson searching for an assistant for one or two days must be bilingual and have a good knowledge of the city.

The majority of people who contact me are college students. I explain that I am setting up a business and I need them to assist me as a guide and interpreter. Having a motivated college student never fails. Make sure they know the different neighborhoods and the public transportation.

The reason I suggest hiring an assistant is to get to know the city. Sometimes being in new places it can be difficult figuring how the city operates. When I arrive, I have my local assistant take me through the city and teach me how to use the busses, trains and other important information I should to know.

You never know you could be in your new city three weeks and find yourself discovered. Having full knowledge of the city can aid in a quick escape.

Mail Drop

I open a mail drop and pay one year in advance. With the mail drop, you do not want to have a P.O. Box drop you want an address drop like 123 Main Street Suite 815. In one instance, I was unable to open a mail drop and my college assistant allowed me to use his home address until I was able to locate a suitable mail facility.

Prepaid Cell Phones

Every country I land in I buy several prepaid cell phones from multiple carriers and I top up the time. Just a note some countries have cracked down on pay as you go phones and you now need to provide ID to obtain a cell phone. This should not be a problem since you will NOT go into the store and purchase the cell phone. Remember, the identification and cameras in the store create the digital footprint. Find a soul in need of a few euros or have your assistant make the purchase.

To keep track of my cell phones I write the country name and cell number on masking tape and place on back of phone. Then I tape over with clear tape so the ink does not run. If you have, numerous cell phones consider shipping the phones so you are not going through checkpoints with twenty cell phones. You may be wondering why carry the phones when you can carry only the SIMS. Carrying twenty SIM cards could prompt a red flag too. Another option is to leave the prepaid cellphone in your mail drop.

Bank Accounts

When in a new country hit the streets and find a bank that will open a checking or savings account for you. Search online or call the bank ahead to find what documents you will need. Also, find out which branch has a person who speaks your language.

The trick is before you go on your bank account opening journey; locate an apartment for sale in the city. Again, do not print out a ten million dollar apartment but something in the one or two hundred thousand range that will not draw too much interest.

After you have located a branch that has a rep who can speak your language, have the real estate information printed out and available for their eyes.

Mention to the banker that you are renting an apartment locally but plan to buy an apartment. Show them the listing, photos and all. Explain the reason for visiting the bank is you need to know if they provide homeowners insurance. Do confirm there is such thing as homeowners insurance in the country.

Nine times, out of ten, the bank rep will change the direction of the conversation and ask where you will be banking. Explain you have yet to figure that out. They will suggest you use their bank and they will become extremely helpful with the account opening process. The real-estate listing motivates the banker and sometimes they will bend on the paperwork like proof of residence.

Another tactic is to find a bank that has foreclosures for sale on their website. Begin a relationship with someone in the foreclosure department. Make sure the conversation moves in the direction that you will be paying with cash. This tends to motivate people and they will suggest opening an account at their bank.

The downside to foreign banking is many banks do not mail account debit cards. They want you to pick it up at the branch. In addition, some banks use Electron Cards that have no three-digit security code on back of the card. This means you cannot use the card for online purchases because 99% of website payment systems require the three-digit code. You can only use an Electron Card in person. I have an Electron Card from one of my banks and it can be seriously inconvenient!

Also, check the fees for withdrawing at an ATM in foreign countries. I made the huge mistake of using a debit card and not reading about the fees in advance. I used the card four times in a week and it was thirty euros per withdrawal. Ouch!

When you open a bank account in a foreign land, make sure your funds are assessable 24/7 via your ATM card. One bank account I had only allowed debits on the card up until ten pm their time.

I have also come across banks that only allow wire transfers during work hour as well as limits up to 600.00 per transfer. With such limits, you will spend a fortune transferring your funds. I speak from experience.

When you open a bank account, it is wise to have an account in your home currency and the currency of the country. Before you open your account, inquire about wiring funds out of the country. There could be currency restrictions. For example, if you have a foreign bank account in your home currency and want to wire transfer your home currency funds to your home country there could be a glitch. Some countries only allow outgoing wire transfers in their local currency. This could cost you a lot of money in currency exchange. Read the small print!

PayPal

When I travel to a country that offers PayPal, I always open an account. I also try to get a local prepaid debit card to connect to the PayPal if possible. Note you do not need to be in the actual country to open a PayPal account for that country.

For the PayPal account, you will need an address. I do what I can to open a mail drop on the spot. If you are unable to open a mail drop, use a hotel address until you can secure a mail drop.

One of the reasons I have PayPal accounts in different countries is so I can use the Buy Now buttons on my website. This allows me to accept credit cards payments in various currencies parked in different countries. I look at the various PayPal accounts as a multiple currency savings accounts. Some days I accept Dollars, some days Euros, Swiss Francs, etc. One of the downsides to foreign PayPal accounts is PayPal does not offer their own debit card connected to the account. I have been able to link a prepaid debit card from country A to country B.

MR. DOUBLE IDENTITY

I find deception to be an amazing tool when utilized for the right reasons. I know it sounds odd. Most people would assume that deception is typically a negative act with dark intentions. When clients contact me they all have the same question, how can they delete the negative or untrue online information making their life miserable? They cannot!

Most people who contact me do not fully accept that the hands of others control their online information. This means deleting information can be near impossible and the only real strategy is deception.

Mr. Double Identity

Mr. Double Identity is a key level executive at a Dubai financial company. One morning the CEO called him into the office and showed him a news article about a fraudster wanted in a Ponzi scheme. The criminal who masterminded the Ponzi scheme took Mr. Double Identity’s name and associated himself with the financial industry. Not long, after law enforcement arrived and questioned Mr. Double Identity but cleared him of any involvement. However, his name was far from in the clear.

A short time passed and more information about the Ponzi scheme spread online. In all the blog writing and second hand reporting, Mr. Double Identity and his company became more associated with the Ponzi scheme. This was a serious problem and clients begin to inquire.

Mr. Double Identity’s company decided to be proactive and hire a reputation management company to solve their issue and save the day. Unfortunately, most of the companies that work in the business of reputation do website suppression, which is useless.

What reputation companies do is build positive information and spread that content. The problem with this is when the suppression ends information shifts in all different directions. It is like trying to control the tide. Moreover, the negative information still exists be it on page three, seven or ten of a search engine. Therefore, people who search your name will find the dirt.

After a few months, Mr. Double Identity’s company came to realize that the website suppression failed. Clients were still inquiring about the Ponzi scheme connection.

Mr. Double Identity’s company contacted me and we set up a meeting to discuss possible solutions. I broke the problem down to a very basic level and explained that the Ponzi scheme criminal had no online associations other than that with Mr. Double Identity and his employer.

This took me to the thought process of why not create an online identity for Mr. Ponzi Scheme the criminal and lead internet searchers to his dirty laundry. The company thought it was an odd solution but agreed to trust me. The plan was to create content that differentiated Mr. Ponzi Scheme from Mr. Double Identity.

To clarify, when people searched Mr. Double Identities name in search engines, information about Mr. Double Identity and Mr. Ponzi Scheme appeared. From a searchers perspective both Mr. Double Identity and Mr. Ponzi Scheme appeared to be the same individual. If someone searched deeper, one would discover that Mr. Double Identity works for a Dubai financial company. In essence, all information ended with Mr. Double Identity and his employer.

What I did was give Mr. Ponzi Scheme his own online identity. I set up a Facebook page that gave him an international background. I showed him as being born in Helsinki, went to school in Italy and college in the UK. I gave a few early jobs at large international corporations. I made his Facebook page deep and set up many bogus friends and family connections. I also set up Facebook pages of fake victims who posted various information, which supported the information I posted. 

I created various blogs from victims in various countries. One particular blog identified Mr. Ponzi Scheme’s Modus Operandi, which was that he used the identity of professionals in the financial sector. One blog I created posted an alleged photo of Mr. Ponzi Scheme and I made him a different nationality from Mr. Double Identity.

The ultimate goal was to give Mr. Ponzi Scheme his own a tangible online identity and to separate Mr. Double Identity from the crime. Now when someone searches Mr. Double Identity/Mr. Ponzi Scheme’s name online one would be able to differentiate victim from criminal.

Note

Propagating positive information or trying to suppress negative information does not solve an online reputation problem. I believe one must create a contradiction that tells a different side of the story. Let the searcher decided what is fact and what is fiction.

MOVE IT LIKE A CROOK

I was hired by a Norwegian Law Firm to hunt down a Brazilian criminal who conned several investors out of many Euros. The conman promised an outrageous return in a short amount of time. This was a typical situation of people thinking with their dreams and not with their heads. This was also a situation where the victims did not want to contact law enforcement because of the embarrassment factor it would cause if their clients learned of their fumble.

Through various skip tracing methods and pretext, I located an apartment in Amsterdam that Mr. Brazil rented. He exited the apartment in a hurry and left some notes behind. The notebook had detailed methods of transferring money to different countries via money transfer services. I thought it would be a cool idea to add a chapter using some of his method of operations. It shows how he transferred money using offshore bank accounts, PayPal accounts, prepaid debit cards and ecommerce websites.

BULK BANKS

CROSS BANKS

SHIFT BANKS

Bulk Banks are accounts that hold the lion’s share of his funds. He had several Bulk Banks in various countries and continents.

Note: When opening bank accounts do your homework on the solvency of the bank and country, fear Cyprus and fear Greece!

BULK BANK – Sydney, Australia

BULK BANK – Barcelona, Spain

BULK BANK – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

From what I deciphered, Bulk Banks are never in the same country or have any transactions between them. These banks held the hidden treasure so there are never any connections between them.

Cross-Banks

The second types of bank accounts are Cross Banks, which transferred funds to or from his Bulk Bank Accounts. He assigned Cross Banks into two separate categories, Deposit and Receive.

Cross-Bank Deposit

Deposits Money

Into

Bulk Bank Accounts

Mr. Brazil only made one deposit into a Cross Bank Deposit Account and then he closed the account.

Cross-Bank - Receive Accounts

Receive Money

From

Bulk Bank Accounts

Mr. Brazil never deposits funds in more than one Bulk Bank!

Notice Different Countries!

Cross Bank Deposit Account (Helsinki)

Into

Bulk Bank Account (1) (Bermuda)

Out to

Receive Cross Bank (Amsterdam)

-

Cross Bank Deposit Account (Munich)

In to

Bulk Bank Account (2) (Venice)

Out to

Receive Cross Bank (Montreal)

This by no means is fool proof or untraceable. Everything is traceable; especially if the predator has mucho money to pay geeks to search or if BIG BROTHER is on your tail. I believe Mr. Brazil’s goal was to make the trace more difficult and do it in numerous jurisdictions. Do note some countries have agreements with each other that expedite subpoenas for combating money laundering.

After Mr. Brazil opened his Cross Banks he separated them into the two categories of Deposit and Receive, he linked several prepaid debit cards to the accounts. No debit card was ever linked to more than one bank account but he did link several debit cards to one bank account.

What I mean by this is if he had an account at the Ahearn Bank in Jamaica, he would link his Brussels

Prepaid Debit Card, Reykjavik Prepaid Debit Card and Tijuana Prepaid Debit Card, Cape-Town Prepaid Debit Card to the bank account. However, he never linked any of these debit cards to other bank accounts.

Receive Cross Bank (Jamaica)

|

Prepaid Debit Card (Brussels)

Prepaid Debit Card (Reykjavik)

Prepaid Debit Card (Tijuana)

Prepaid Debit Card (Cape Town)

Do note it is not always possible to link debit cards from country A to bank accounts in country B.

Receive Cross Bank (Hong Kong)

|

Prepaid Debit Card (Belize)

Prepaid Debit Card (Milan)

Prepaid Debit Card (Rio)

Prepaid Debit Card (Salzburg)

Using this method of movement the Brazilian was able to load up prepaid debit cards in one country and then fund a bank account in a different country. This would make it more difficult to trace where the money went. One debit card could be from Iceland and another from Lithuania. Even the best skip tracer or private detective would have difficulty locating and accessing transactions. BIG BROTHER could follow the trail but the goal is to be long disappeared before the knock on the door.

The Key Word is Difficult Not Untraceable!

Let me jump back to Mr. Brazil’s apartment in Amsterdam. I discovered that when he occupied the apartment he had no internet service just like Mr. Belfast. I figured he used a prepaid wireless service or an internet café. Around the corner from the apartment, is a large internet café, The Mad Processor. It is a huge internet and gaming place. I was unable to obtain a list of IP searches.

Money Sites

Money Sites are websites you build that accept credit card payments via a merchant service accounts.

The following are a list of web hosting companies Mr. Brazil used to build websites. As you can see, he did not keep his web hosting in one country.

www.123-reg.co.uk

www.europeregistry.com

www.domainexpress.co.uk

www.uk-cheapest.co.uk

www.one.com

www.variomedia.de

www.101domain.com

I find it amazing how brilliant a criminal can be and then totally absent minded by keeping physical notes and then leaving them behind. What I would have done is build websites to keep track of all my credit cards and bank accounts. I would not publish the websites but leave them as working drafts. I would also password protect the websites in case I accidentally published them. The best way to keep anything secret is to keep in your head. To keep track of the websites I would use characters from books. For example, one of my favorite books is The Count of Monte Cristo and for my Money Websites I would use characters for domain names. I would remember these websites because of the book.

Money Sites

|

www.Villefort.cc

www.Bertuccio.cd

www.MaximilienMorrel.cf

www.BaronDanglars.ci

I would pick a letter in the title and since I am using The Count of Monte Cristo, I would use domain extensions that begin with C.

.ca - Canada

.cc - Cocos

.cd - Democratic Republic of the Congo

.cf - Central African Republic

.cg - Republic of the Congo

.ch - Switzerland

.ci - Côte d'Ivoire

Be aware that some merchant accounts are geographically restricted.

Another book I would use would be Atlas Shrugged. Using A for Atlas I would use domain extensions that start with the letter A.

.ac - Ascension Island

.ad - Andorra

.ae - United Arab Emirates

.af - Afghanistan

.ag - Antigua and Barbuda

.ai - Anguilla

Money Sites

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www.JohnGalt.ad

www.HankReardon.al

www.DagnyTaggart.ar

As long as you remember the book or movie you based your MONEY SITES on it will be easy for you to locate and access the websites without keeping any physical notes

Money Sites should be simple sites that are password protected. Also, pay the extra fee and make the website private. However, not all websites can be private, so do your homework.

Again, money sites have a merchant service connected to the site so you can buy an alleged product. Those funds from your credit card are then deposited into a predetermined bank account

Money Site

www.BaronDanglars.ci

|

Merchant Service Account (Australia)

Merchant Service Account (Austria)

Merchant Service Account (Belgium)

Merchant Service Account (Brazil)

Money Site

www. Johngalt.ad

|

Merchant Service Account (Russia)

Merchant Service Account (Singapore)

Merchant Service Account (Spain)

Merchant Service Account (Norway)

Let us assume your Bulk Bank in Spain is facing possible discovery and you need to move your money quickly.

Bulk Bank Spain – Possible Discovery

All you do is transfer your funds to your Receive Cross Bank in Istanbul.

Bulk Bank (Spain)

|

Sends Funds To

|

Receive Cross Bank (Istanbul)

That Receive Cross Bank in Istanbul should have several prepaid debit cards linked to the account.

Receive Cross Bank (Istanbul)

|

Linked Prepaid Debit Cards

The prepaid credit cards you have will buy services from your Money Sites in Berlin, Jamaica, Columbia,

etc. This action sends your funds to three different countries.

Prepaid Debit Cards

|

Makes Purchases from Your Money Sites

|

Money Sites

www.Berlin.fa

www.Jamaica.fa

www.Columbia.fa

What you have done is use prepaid debit cards to make purchases and those funds sent to one of your bank accounts or money account in Berlin, Jamaica and Columbia.

The problem with having numerous prepaid debit cards is they can be rather bulky carrying around. Leaving them home, at work or in a safety deposit box can restrict access. I do a number of things that provide me with instant access to my prepaid cards.

You can build a website that is password protected, and take photos of the front and back of the prepaid cards. Then upload the photos to your private website. With debit cards, you need to know the three-digit security number on back including the billing zip code. I name the photo “22390210” this tells me the three-digit security code is 223 and the billing zip is 90210.

223 THREE DIGIT CODE

90210 ZIP CODE

As you can see, money has traveled through several countries utilizing several different types of transactions. In addition, the Brazilian split the funds into numerous accounts making them more difficult to trace and seize. Keep in mind what I am explaining are simplified examples and to execute it will take a significant amount of work.

Shift Banks

Another type of account Mr. Brazil utilized were Shifts Banks. Shift Bank only receives money from money transfer services. This could be Western Union like transfers or Merchant Service Accounts.

Shift Banks Transfer Funds into Bulk Banks

|

Money Transfer Services (Barbados)

|

Shift Banks (Jersey)

|

Bulk Banks (Dublin)

Again

Wire Transfer (Norway)

|

Shift Bank (Norway)

|

Money Transfer Services (Netherlands)

|

Bulk Bank (Japan)

Mr. Brazil’s notes end here and this is how you move it like a crook. I do not know if the Brazilian actually went through all of these steps but I thought I would share.

The one part Mr. Brazil did not do was create some bogus trails for me to follow. I would have taken his actions a step further and left a little money in each of the accounts and do some cross border purchasing that involve travel.

Paris train pass

Movie tickets in Berlin

Tickets to the opera in London

Cheap plane ticket

Hotel reservations in Norway

Flowers to a police station in London

Chocolate’s to a stranger in Buenos Aires

Order clothing in South Africa

Creating bogus trails with credit cards and bank accounts are just as important as creating bogus trails about you. Every piece of information left behind needs to be vetted. Better to have the vetting in Bermuda where you are not then in Trinidad where you are sipping Pina Coladas.

THE WAY OF THE GHOST

In early two thousand my world was falling apart and I was going bankrupt, being audited and dealing with a divorce. To top it off my consumption of fine spirits was going off the rails. I wanted nothing more than to disappear and leave my world behind. However, my life was not in tune with disappearing, everything was spiraling out of control.

Looking back, I can see that if I had disappeared it would have been a massive disaster. In reality I was looking to run from my problems, not disappear, there is a difference. Disappearing is about creating and building, running is hiding. The man who disappears has an endgame while the man who runs only lives on borrowed time.

During the sinking of my world, I found myself dipping into Buddhism. One afternoon while cruising in god-forsaken New Jersey I came upon a Buddhist Monastery and something overtook me and I made my way into the gates.

As I walked around the monastery, I watched all the bald Buddhist men doing their thing. It seemed somewhat peaceful and so far from my life.

I think I was at the point where I felt as if I had no way out. I was ready to give it all up but it was a question of how. My options were limited to like a bullet to the brain, a Buddhist monastery or stop drinking. Eventually a monk approached me and we began to chat. He asked me if I wanted to be a Buddhist and it sounded cool to me. I replied yes. He replied with a funny smile. He asked me if I drank alcohol, chased women and was fond of my long hair. It was a yes across the board. He told me I would not be a good Buddhist and offered a few books and put me on my way.

Not long afterwards, my world really came crashing down. Even at this moment, I remember the vacant feeling of leaving my office for the final time. The electricity shut off for nonpayment, the computers gone, the employees bailed and all I had left was a sea of empty desks and a few books about Buddha. My empire became nothingness, life was not working out and I decided I needed a new code. Instead of shooting myself in the head, I stopped drinking and became a ghost.

The Way of the Ghost

To be disappeared is a lifestyle change not simply a here to there action. Each morning a Ghost wakes up and remembers a predator is hunting them. Whether it is BIG BROTHER, monotony, a stalker or poverty, the ghost seeks freedom. There must be an innate understanding that any wrongdoing or frivolous actions can jeopardize freedom.

A Ghost must always be prepared. The way of the Ghost means that you should exist in an unnoticeable way, invisible. If you go to the supermarket, bank, place phone calls, send emails and do all the other normal functions people do daily. You should go unnoticed, a soul that prompts no attention.

If a debit card you used is traced to a transaction at the supermarket, it must ultimately lead to a dead end. If your email correspondence is traced it must lead to a dead end. If your prepaid cell phone is compromised, it must lead to a dead end. If the last flight you were on took you to Barcelona, the tracks must stop in Barcelona or lead to a bogus trail. The predator must think of you as a ghost.

What is Your Ghost Code?

I am not promoting crime in this chapter but if you are disappearing from a predator or BIG BROTHER, you might as well learn from the mistakes of others. From reading about various people who have faked their death, they do not seem to comprehend that they are planning a crime. Some drive to their disappear destination, some follow their online presence and others have photos taken of themselves. If you fake your death, live as if you are dead and exist as if you are a ghost. You must never be seen.

All criminals leave dirt behind, which is the evidence that identifies who most likely committed the crime. This leads to the pursuit and most times the capture of the perpetrator.

The Challenges of Crime

1. The criminal wants to commit a crime without  apprehension.

2. The criminal wants to live free after the crime.

3. Law Enforcement must identify the criminal.

4. Law Enforcement must hunt and capture the criminal

The problem with criminals is most do not commit a crime day. However, most detectives investigate a crime or two a day.

Code of the Ghost

Never use hardware of your own!

If you are reading this on a laptop or kindle that has your identifier attached this is a HUGE mistake.

If it plugs in it leaves digital dirt!

If it plugs in, turns on, makes a connection it most likely leaves evidence.

Do not press the button!

Pressing enter, send, download or save creates digital dirt.

Carry no weapons of the trade!

If you have it on your person and BIG BROTHER dips in your pocket, your secrets are blown.

Non Semper Erit Aestas Erasmus!

Summer will not last forever!

Before you actually begin the road to faking your death, existing like a ghost or disappearing you need to think of it as a seamless transition. If you do not make it a seamless transition, the party hunting you down just might find that speck of dirt you left in the wind.

Assume you plan to fake your death. It is important for you to recognize and be honest with yourself that you are planning to become a fugitive. There is a difference between disappearing and being a fugitive on the run. To a degree, being disappeared is existing in a cyclical way of living while being a fugitive is a linear way of living. Cyclical has no beginning and no end; linear has a beginning and an end.

Being disappeared is about being in a place where the predator knows nothing about. This existence is an event, which you feed to maintain. Living on the run has a limited shelf life because one must take from others in order to exist

Disappear – Cyclical

On The Run - Linear

For some strange reason we see people who have faked their death somewhat as cult heroes. We tend to forget that there is a crime behind them and typically, that crime is about money or freedom. What I find stupid about criminals on the run is that they commit crimes to survive. I understand that sometimes they have no choice but it is a lose/lose situation. Common sense dictates that their actions are stacking the chips against them and raising the odds of apprehension. If you have, no money or shelter to sleep, seek out the help of others who can assist for a short period. This help should never be someone from your past. It is wiser to live off a person’s charity then to steal and risk freedom.  Avoid organizations like homeless shelters and food kitchens. BIG BROTHER lays in wait. Find a woman or man seeking companionship and seek refuge with them.

Criminals Go Back to the Hood

Most criminals go back to the hood. They go to a place where they feel most comfortable. If you ever watched US Marshals on TV, you will notice that when they hunt down a fugitive the Marshals usually go back to the old neighborhood and wait. The reason they wait is that they know the dumbass fugitive is going to visit family, girlfriend or an old crime partner. 

No Honor Among Thieves

There is no honor among thieves. If your crime partner is busted, your crime partner will drop a dime on you for a lighter sentence. Sammy the Bull dropped a bag full of dimes on the mob and had mucho murders under his belt. Sammy is as tough as they come and in the end, he looked out for himself. He was the second most powerful gangster in America. If Sammy dropped a dime, so can your crime partner, brother, mother or spouse.

The Way of the Ghost

A ghost, ghosts alone

A ghost shares no secrets

A ghost exist as if dead

A ghost never looks back

A ghost never draws attention

A ghost avoids photos and media at all cost

Bad shit happens to stupid people!

If you faked your death, you need to live like a good citizen. You should never drive reckless, speed or drive a car with a broken taillight.

I dislike most TV show but the show Cops should be homework for criminals. I have seen schmucks with ten pounds of weed in their car driving with a busted headlight. I have seen people with warrants pulled over for speeding. If you are wanted by the man, do not do things that invite the man your way. 

Living the way of a ghost means you will not bring or draw attention. That would include common sense things like driving with the broken light, public intoxication, speeding, fighting, and other situations where the words HANDS UP may be directed at you.  A little homework would be watching a bunch of episodes of the TV show Cops.

Sometimes bad shit just happens!

Meet John Stonehouse who was a Member of Parliament in the UK. In late 1974, Stonehouse decided he wanted a new life and so he left his clothes on a Miami Beach giving the assumption that he took the big dip in the warm waters. John actually split to Australia with his mistress.

Prior to hitting the road Stonehouse set, up a new name of Clive Mildoon and sent off some funds to New Zealand. For some odd reason the banker in NZ was suspicious of Stonehouse and his Mildoon alias. Perhaps it was the stupid name. She called the police to make them aware of his presence. Eventually, Stonehouse made his way over to Australia where the suspicion followed and put him on the radar of the Australian heat.

Not knowing his real identity, the Aussie police suspected that Stonehouse was Lord Lucan a murder suspect from the UK. One of the reasons the reasons the police believed Stonehouse was Lord Lucan is that he was reading a British newspaper. Talk about random, the choice of newspaper put Stonehouse in the hunt.

Assuming Stonehouse was the murderous Lord Lucan, the Australian authorities popped him. Scotland Yard sent photos of Lord Lucan and Stonehouse.

Busted!

Stonehouse was shipped back to the UK and had a stack of charges to the tune of twenty-one laid on him. Guilty and sentenced to seven years in the gray bar hotel. As for Lord Lucan, he may still be out there or he may be dead. No one knows for sure.

A Curious Bank Teller

A Newspaper From Home

Think about it, a curious bank teller from New Zealand and a newspaper from his home country put Stonehouse in the spotlight. There is nothing Stonehouse could have done about the bank teller. However, his hands picked up the UK newspaper. The way of the ghost never looks backwards and that means do not associate with material from your homeland. Luckily, today the ghost can bank and read from a computer.

Ghosts are Dead

Ghost Leave the Past Behind

What is the code you will create? Will you create a code that is pure and strives for the ultimate freedom? Will you create a code that will allow you to live after you fake your death? There is no one code; we all have different needs and wants. What matters is creating the code that works for you! It is important you create your code before you disappear. This can truly determine the success of your disappearance. Do not be like a prisoner who breaks out of prison and has no plans past the gate.

I began this chapter with my Buddhist story and life spiraling out of control. This chapter is about looking at yourself and discovering truth. Your self-admission of those truths can determine your disappear success. I suggest you be Zen and be a ghost.

JUST ONE MORE THING…

For you fraudsters who want to cash in on an insurance policy remember there must be an exchange for the check. All insurance companies want a death certificate and it is seriously difficult to get a death certificate without a cold rotting body.

Before you run into the ocean or leave your car on a bridge with a suicide note scribbled in dirt. It is imperative you properly plan and properly evaluate your act of fraud. The execution of the act must be flawless but the “explanation” of why no body exists must be Columbo Proof.

What is Columbo Proof? It is your crime being perfect, airtight and super solid. It is avoiding the words “One more thing…” rolling from the mouth of a detective.

Pseudocide Red Flags

A pseudocide red flag can be a supposed death that happens in a body of water. If you plan to fake your death by water, do not be a dumbass and do it in a lake.

Foreign Deaths

For a while, foreign deaths were popular in the pseudocide world. However, it is one thing to fake your death and get a death certificate from France, Germany or Ireland. It is another thing to get a death certificate in Haiti, Belize, Panama or Columbia.  If a death certificate is obtained from a third world nation, it will not be an easy ride. I would say most insurance companies if not all will investigate the death out of the claim if in a third world nation or step above.

Third World Deaths Are Always Suspicious

The one who fakes their death is a lonesome soul going up against an investigating machine and the deep pockets of an insurance company. When the beneficiary files the insurance claim be aware there is a department of investigators, a budget and access to the best investigative sources available. After you kicked the can in Columbia, there is one goal for the investigator, prove or disprove if you are ten toes up. It is a duel of deception!

This is a gamble for you because you do not know if you if are going up against LT. Columbo or Deputy Barney Fife. Most Insurance Investigators are good at their jobs and some can be quite tenacious. If you have a red flag claim by water or on foreign soil, the odds of winning are stacked against you.

Changing Policy

If you made a change to your insurance policy by increasing the amount, you are an idiot.

Missing Person

A missing person claim to a death claim is extremely difficult to accomplish. A PI I know worked a case that involved a French college student who went missing. The story goes that the Pierre the student was found wandering the streets of Miami naked and yelling that people were out to kill him.

The police took Pierre to the nuthatch for a weekend visit where he was given meds and released a few days later. That night Pierre emailed his friends and family that he was in fear for his life. No one ever heard from Pierre again.

A few years later the family came to terms with the fact that Pierre was probably deceased. The family needed to settle his estate and property owned in Paris but they needed the state of Florida to issue a death certificate.

The family hired a private dick who ripped Pierre’s life apart. The PI was able to trace Pierre’s final steps to a small boat dock. A witness recalled that he was having a party on his boat that night and thought someone did in fact fall in the water. When the police investigated, they assumed it was a large bird grabbing fish. The witness disagreed. Ultimately, the PI investigating the case concluded that Pierre most likely took his life.

A hearing took place to determine if Pierre was deceased or not. The PI walked into court loaded for bear with hard information that pointed to Pierre’s suicide. Shockingly, the judge ruled against the family stating that there was not enough evidence to issue an order for a death certificate. Six months later, someone found Pierre’s body in a field.

Think about Pierre’s scenario. What if it is thirty days after you have faked your death and your spouse secretly contacts you letting you know the courts will not sign off on a death certificate. This means the insurance company will not hand over the big check. What do you do when your money and your spouse’s money begins to run out? I bet you never thought about this option.

Unusual Calls

Phone calls made to countries you have not called in the past would be of interest to an insurance investigator. You might be wondering how the insurance company would locate. Simple, a skip tracer illegally obtains your phone records. Sure, it is illegal but who said anyone abides by the law.

Service Websites

Service websites are sites such as home rentals, utilities, cable, chamber of commerce, banks and other such sites one would search while planning a move. Any of these types of websites showing up on your IP is a red flag. I mentioned in a previous chapter that these types of searches can be done for misinformation purposes to throw the predators off your trail but there should be no fake trail in pseudocide.

Books & Streaming

Do not buy books about travel or disappearing if you plan to fake your death. Do not stream videos about foreign cities or download audio to learn a new language.

Common sense dictates that if you plan to open a business you should educate yourself in that industry. What I do not understand is why criminals who commit crimes do not study the business of crime.

“Don’t Do the Crime if You Can’t Do the Time.” Baretta

I would venture to say that most criminals commit crimes for financial gain. If I were teaching a “how to” course on crime it would be Crime 101. I would assign homework and the first assignment would be to learn how to evaluate the true worth of a crime. There a scene in the movie Heat where Robert De Niro’s character is discussing a crime and he says something to the nature that the crime is worth a stretch. It is crazy thinking but some criminals do think this way.

Imagine a criminal who sticks up a liquor store and takes eight hundred bucks from the register. A week later, he is busted and eventually sentenced to five years in the big house. The day he walks to freedom and looks back on what he earned from the crime, it will be a whopping $3.07 per day. He could have gotten a job in McDonalds and made that eight hundred in three or four weeks. Instant gratification is never a wise in the world of crime.

Risk vs. Reward

I am sure the liquor store criminal never looked into the neighboring state to search the penalties of armed robbery there. Perhaps the neighboring state is far more lenient with drug users. I bet if the drugs were better in the neighboring state, no doubt the criminal would Grey Hound it over the state line.

I know this is somewhat absurd but it is risk verses reward. I read about one woman who faked her death because she did not want to go to court for a minor offense. She was immediately arrested and her actions compounded her problems. A situation where she would have received probation turned into an unwelcome vacation wearing unfashionable orange.

Why do criminals not watch crime TV? How many times have we seen the video of the heat grilling a suspect in the interrogation room and the criminal is trying to bullshit the detective? Think about it, if you are in that interrogation room there is a strong possibility that you just might be the one who committed the crime. When a cop tells you that you have the right to remain silent shut up and remain silent.

The First 48 is an excellent cop show that profiles real homicide cases. I would say that the majority of people arrested do NOT take heed of the Miranda Rights. The minute a law enforcement official identifies who they are, the only words one should speak after that is “I WANT A LAWYER.’ There are plenty of innocent people wearing orang and stripes.

No one ever wants to hear a Lt. Columbo say, “One more thing…”

MARCUS SCHRENKER

Another mastermind criminal of capitalism is Fly Boy Marcus Schrenker. A common story read in the headlines of America, rich Wall Street type rips off investors. In 2009, the whip came down and BIG BROTHER came calling on Fly Boy.

In a pickup truck with a motor cycle in the back, he made his way to Alabama. In a rented storage facility Fly Boy stashed his motor cycle and his other disappear goods. Sounds like a Springsteen song.

The following day Fly Boy straps himself into the pilot’s seat of his plane and makes his way to the friendly skies. Above the state of Alabama fly Boy places a distress call stating, windows broke and blood everywhere. Plane switched to autopilot Fly Boy bails out and yells Geronimo! What a dumb ass bailing out of a plane that could have caused mass disaster below.

Geronimo!

Here is a question about criminals like Fly Boy. Do they leave behind damage pay for the family? Fly Boy steals a boatload of dough and goes on the run. At any point, did he ever think about protecting his family from the looming hell that would ultimately arrive at the family doorstep?

If you are a criminal crafty enough to take a big slice of another person’s pie, at least put some crumbs away for your family.

Two Words – Offshore Bank

Four Words – Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty

Fly Boy’s plane crashed a few miles from a residential community and when the police searched the plane, they found a campground directory. There were a few pages from Florida and Alabama ripped out. Duh, even Inspector Clouseau could deduce the crash as suspect.

Fly Boy hits the ground in Alabama and is now on the run. He finds a house nearby, knocks on the door and claims he was in a canoeing accident. The kind stranger drives him to the police station and the po-po drive Fly Boy to a local motel. If you search Fly Boy’s name for images you will see a photo of him checking into the motel.

Fly Boy goes through all the trouble of stashing his Go-On- The-Run-Items in a storage facility. He escapes in his plane, issues a distress call, switches the plane to autopilot and bails out of the plane. It is one crazy plan where he went to extreme lengths to execute. What sticks with me is this elaborate plane crash and he walks into a motel and allows himself to be captured on video. Only one word describes his actions STUPID! Did he not consider the fact that cameras will record his smug mug and this could prove he is not dead?

I suggest people who disappear under normal circumstance not use a disguise. If you faked your death in a plane crash, you will become national if not international news in a matter of time. This is when a disguise would be appropriate. The photo of Schrenker in the motel is like a deer in the headlights. You know that stupid stare. He had no wig, no moustache and no hat, no looking down at the floor, no hand covering his face, nothing to disguise his identity. Two words here, big dumbass!

This is my point about people who fake their death; they do not think long term. Fly Boy obviously never asked himself how he would make his way past social surveillance cameras. To boot he gets in a car with a cop. Can you imagine that night while the cop is home eating good southern fried chicken and watching the news. He sees Fly Boy’s face flash on the screen as the reporter reports of the fiery crash.

The same goes for the people who drove him to the police station and the motel desk clerk. Less than twelve hours after he fakes his death a minimum of three people have seen him alive. Only one word describes his actions STUPID!

If I was going to fake my death I would travel my route as covertly as possible and create an A to Z list of all potential cameras on my route. This would assist with identifying dangerous locations in my exit. How you get away from the scene of your demise is something that should be planned, you just don’t wing it. There is more to faking your death then faking your death.

By Fly Boy, driving up to a storage facility in Alabama close to the day of his disappearance was a huge blunder. This action alone could have taken him out the game. He left behind many digital trails. The pickup truck could have GPS. Did he go through any tolls? Stop for gas or food, use a credit card or cash What about his cell phone, did he receive or place any calls? If so easily tracked.

The day after Fly Boy lands he checks out of the motel, retrieves his motorcycle and is now Mr. Easy Rider. He makes haste to the KOA Campground in Quincy, Florida. He pays one night to camp in a tent while he enjoys a six-pack of beer. Here is the big mystery, why did he go to a campground and not head down Mexico way. The next day Mr. Easy Rider did not check out of the campground on time.

The owners of the campground went to check on Fly Boy and noticed red stains on the tent they assumed it was blood. Also, the local police contacted the campground asking if anything unusual or out of the ordinary were happenings. It was not long until Marcus Schrenker was looking down the wrong end of a gun barrel.

Fly Boy should have just left town and not have created an elaborate death plan that ultimately failed. The man who stole a bunch of loot and devised a crazy flying exit plan meets his fall in the Redneck Riviera. Sometimes karma and justice has a warped sense of humor.

DISAPPEAR OR PSEUDOCIDE

When people find themselves in a situation where there appears to be no out, or the road they face involves captivity they naturally want to run. It is human nature. If you are in a situation and have chosen to run the question will be, do you drop everything and run or do you fake your death. This is a tough decision to make.

Take Marcus “Fly Boy” Schrenker again. He designed what he believed to be a brilliant act of pseudocide. The time he spent taking his motorcycle to a storage facility, downing his plane, getting a ride to a motel and going to the campground was all- futile. He could have been on a plane to one of a dozen countries where he could have fallen off the grid. Marcus “Fly Boy” Schrenker should have disappeared and not faked his death.

Sometimes it is more prudent to walk away and leave it all. However, that is a decision only you can make and not an easy one at that. Disappearing is an art not a science and sometimes one needs to go with their gut.

If you are in a situation like Marcus “Fly Boy” Schrenker, I do believe it is best to just disappear and not fake your death. When you fake your death, you are not simplifying your exit plan but creating more obstacles to overcome.

Marcus “Fly Boy” Schrenker spun his wheels and they got him nowhere. Many of those who have faked their deaths created elaborate plans but all became unhinged because of stupid things.

Samuel Israel III parked his car on a bridge and wrote a suicide line on his dirty windshield. Aubrey 'Lee' Price another white-collar cheat sent a letter to his family that he planned to kill himself by jumping off a ferryboat. The strange part about Aubrey 'Lee' Price is he was off the radar for over a year but arrested back in Georgia. Hello? Aubrey “Lee” Price, you are a dumbass.

If you are wanted by the law, disappearing is all about getting out of Dodge and walking off into the sunset. There is no elaborate plan or any pomp and circumstance. By disappearing, you reduce the amount of law enforcement searching for you.

When I was a skip tracer hunting people down it was easy to review a person’s information, figure out what was a real lead, and what was a fake lead. It is difficult to explain how because it is somewhat of an innate process. I know that may sound hokey but it is true. A fair amount of law enforcement officers would probably admit that some of the leads they found and crimes they have solved came from a hunch or gut feeling.

So, if a criminal asked me is it better to disappear or fake their death I would say a thousand times over - DISAPPEAR.

I WANT MY CORNERS

Marc Stuart Dreier was a lawyer and in 2009 he was arrested for a litany of fraud charges. I know it is a shocker. Imagine a lawyer committing a crime who would have thought. I watched a documentary titled Unraveled about Drier. A camera crew hung with him for thirty days prior to his sentence.

The meat of the crime was Drier approached a hedge fund company and claimed his client wanted to borrow money on the QT. The hedge fund company was interested and so Drier supplied them with bogus financial statements and brokered the phony deal. What began as a one million dollar fraud escalated to the tune of several hundred million bucks. That my friend is a whole lotta fritters.

Drier built a huge law firm that had offices in New York, Los Angeles, Connecticut and a few other places. What no one knew was he was funding the law firm with stolen money. Drier owned a super cool apartment in New York, a huge house in the Hamptons, a nice place in Anguilla and a kick ass Aston Martin. His life amounted to being the boss of a law firm and the boss of a fraud firm.

In the documentary Drier talked about being in a situation where he needed to create more fraud to pay off the old fraud. Again, this was a situation where a thief had no exit plan. He kept the hamster wheel spinning and swindling more and more money.

Drier stated that when the market turned around and slipped it became more difficult to locate new marks to rip off. What I found interesting about Drier was when he was in Dubai he knew the end was near. He claimed he had one hundred million dollars in the bank and claimed that Dubai has no extradition. I do not know if true or not. He was thinking of staying but did not want to be away from his children.

Drier returned to the US and headed up to Toronto to try one last fraud but it blew up in his face. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to twenty long ones.

These white-collar fools spin their wheels hustling here, defrauding there only to end up in the big house. To a degree, they are like drug lords. We all know that most drug lords will share the same destiny. The dirt nap or the gray bar hotel in Terra Haute. What is it about those lifestyles that both breeds have serious amounts of money but neither of them gets out of the game?

Some say the money is the point system in the game of big crime. Perhaps it is not about disappearing off the grid with millions. Maybe it is about waking up and doing the hustle. Drug Lords want their cartel, white collars want their Ponzi but I can tell you this Frank M. Ahearn would take Dubai and a hundred million in a heartbeat.

OBIT SUBMIT

One popular way people have faked their death has been to place their own obituary in the newspaper, quite crafty and ballsy if you ask me. It seems most who have tried this method of faking their death were facing the long arm the law. The hope is that the investigator or prosecutors office accept the death for face value and closes the case. Meet the want to be dead.

Person: Scott Bennett

Obit: Submitting a fake obituary for his living mother to a local newspaper.

Motivation: To receive paid bereavement time

Busted: Relatives called the newspaper to report Bennett’s mother was alive and well.

Outcome: Fired from his job and charged with disorderly conduct.

Talk about a dumbass, obviously Bennett never considered that fact that a relative or a neighbor would spot the obit.

Person: James Snyder

Obit: Submitted an obit for his girlfriend's 17-year-old son

Motivation: To get out of work

Busted: People who knew the teen saw him at a restaurant and called authorities

Outcome: Snyder was charged with tampering with records and sentenced to a year in jail — suspended to seven days.

All that trouble to get a day off. Again, what makes someone believe that relatives and friends won’t come forward?

Person: Shawnda K. Hatfield

Obit: Published her own obituary in the Star Press

Motivation: Avoid jail time

Busted: Hatfield was arrested by a bail bondsman

Outcome: A trip to the pokey

The bail bondsman heard a rumor that Hatfield was still alive and well. Naturally, Hatfield claimed she knew nothing about the fake obit.

Person: James Ford Seale

Obit: Newspapers reported him dead, apparently because his family said he was.

Motivation: Three life sentences

Busted: Brother of the victim

Outcome: Prison & Death

Person: Jon A. Criss

Obit: Sent in his own obituary to a local paper

Motivation: Avoid drug related charges

Busted: Unknown

Outcome: Bail 75k

Person: Byron Shane Carpenter

Obit: "Byron Shane Carpenter, Jan. 15, 1979 - March 2, 2009. Byron passed away last Monday in a car accident. He was a loving father and husband. May he rest in peace. Anthony-Bethany Funeral Home."

Motivation: Facing vehicular homicide charges

Busted: A tip placed to MADD

Outcome: Busted hiding under a bunch of rocks.

Person: Jason Hart

Obit: Sent his local newspaper a fake obituary

Motivation: EBay scam

Busted: News got to his parents on holiday

Outcome: He claimed he had no knowledge of obit

As you can see Obit-Submit equals dumbass! When creating a scheme, devising a plan or hatching a crime give your adversary a little more credit. By doing so, you just might raise the bar in your felonious actions.

BENNY WINT SHOULD NEVER HAVE GONE

Tucked safely away under his fake name of over fifteen years. Benny Wint is out cruising about town doing his thing going to and fro. Then the ‘oh shit” moment of life happens, a police car in the rearview. On go the bubblegum lights and the blast of a siren. Benny pulls over.

The heat stopped Benny because of a rear light by his license plate was not functioning. Benny, Benny, Benny how many times have we read about criminals and other non-do-gooders being busted because of a faulty blinker or broken taillight.

Benny told the officer his name was James Sweet but the officer knew there was something not so sweet going down. Because when the officer ran the name James Sweet in the computer, no James Sweet was located. The cop arrested him on suspicion of driving without a license and giving false information.

At the police station, Benny cracked like a bad egg and spilled the beans. He revealed that he has been on the run since the late eighties. Back in the day, Benny and his babe went to the beach in Daytona and he disappeared in the water. His woman contacted the authorities. The police in Daytona thought the disappearance seemed a bit fishy. The reason is that most people who drown at the beach typically float back to the sand.

The story goes that Benny was allegedly involved with some drug people prior to his disappearance and he believed the whip was coming down and incarceration was coming his way.

When the police ran his fingerprints and did a search, Benny had no wants or warrants. It turns out that Benny disappeared for no reason at all. He was squeaky clean.

If you plan on faking your death or disappearing because you believe the man is going to come calling, do your dam homework. Pick up a prepaid credit card, prepaid cell phone, get a bogus email address, call a private investigator, and tell them you are hiring a person and would like to do a background check that includes wants and warrants.

I do not know if Benny sees his life as a life wasted or if his life became better on the fake lam. Can you imagine fifteen years later realizing that you ran from something that did not exist? The suffering his family must have gone through thinking Benny was somewhere in the afterlife.

Benny is an example of what not to do for two reasons. The primary is he went on the run for no reason at all. Second, he had a fake identity that did not stand up to the inquiry by the man. You are probably thinking so what, he was on the run for years. Sure, he was but if he were a true criminal running from the law, he would be sitting behind barbwire at this moment. The bottom line here is Benny Wint should never have gone!

MR. SELF-HELP

I do what I call gotcha cases every so often. It usually involves searching for a person who owes large amounts of money. My Norwegian client was searching for Mr. Self-Help who was a defunct motivational speaker and the author of a few mediocre books about bettering one’s self. Mr. Self-Help borrowed a large amount of money from a group of investors and disappeared into the wind.

When hunting down a subject down all I need to do is find one nugget of information and chip away at that piece. In most cases, that piece usually takes me to another piece of information. The hope is that it leads to something tangible like an address or contact number. Mr. Self-Help was actually pretty slick at hiding and every piece of information I located led to a disconnected phone number or a dead mail drop.

Gordon Gecko says greed is good. What Gordon does not know is greed is great when hunting down certain types of criminals and deadbeats. I figured I would lure Mr. Self-Help out of hiding by posing as a foreign publisher interested in translating a few of his books into French. I built a website and loaded it up with a bunch of books covers and a few employee names. In an hour’s time, the Francois Beaumont Agency looked quite authentic.

I emailed Mr. Self-Help’s publisher and inquired if they had contact information for him or his agent. Mr. Self-Help reached out to me immediately and I Explained The Francois Beaumont Agency had interest in translating his books into French. Being the greedy soul, he happened to be he wanted to negotiate the deal directly and not use an agent. A meeting was set with Mr. Self-Help in Paris.

We met up in a hotel lobby, did our introductions and moved into the restaurant for lunch. I talked in detail about how his books would be translated and if they hit a certain sales mark, it was possible a new book would be requested of him. I handed over a few contracts and a sheet that requested bank information for wire payment.

Mr. Self-Help breezed through the contracts and signed on the dotted line in between Shrimp Cocktail and Coq au vin, we shook hands and parted ways. About a month later, law enforcement greeted Mr. Self-Help at his home and arrested him for intent to defraud.

If you are disappeared and a situation emerges where you need to step out of hiding you need to do some deep recon. If the scenario involves something very attractive as money, always consider the fact that it could be bait. If Mr. Self-Help took three minutes of his time and searched the domain name I used for the publishers website in WHOIS, he would have discovered that the domain name was only thirty days old.

LIBERTY

Liberty once meant the state of being free but unfortunately it has become a watered down word used to deliver false promises. The reason I say this is while promising a better society world governments have unleashed a hungry wolf on its citizens. The wolf is technology and it sucks the marrow of privacy right out of us.  Information has become the weapon of social control.

Freedom and privacy should be more than an ideology. It should be a power left on to the people. We should have the right to limit the information taken from us, or at the very least aware of such despicable actions. The truth is there will be no turning back and the cliché that the levee has broken is bitterly true. I do not mean to sound so disharmonious but these are the truths in our current society. The fear should be that this intrusion evolves into a global virus.

If you want freedom and privacy, you must define what it means to you and live that life. Do not leave your future in the hands of politicians who continuously treat us as if they rule and it is our place to serve.

While those on the right blame those on the left and vice versa, the true troubles of society swell unnoticed. I am not one for conspiracy and one does not need to be paranoid to recognize that the classes are widening and governments are ignoring the call of the people.

There is a dark hour ruling and it is ceasing our personal freedoms. The idea of liberty seems only to exist in the minds of man or on the tips of their pens. How much more will we take?

Soon a new technological frontier will be upon us; this will create a dividing line between man and freedom. It will be the day technology leaves the box and finds a place in the human body. This is when true freedom will be in peril. When that day arrives, you must decide if you will be man or machine.

The End

Frank M. Ahearn is author of How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace (Lyons Press 2010) and The Digital Hit Man (Lying Press 2012).

www.FrankAhearn.com