Social Media Can Help You Fake Your Own Death 146
Julie188 writes "We are inundated with warnings that social media is systematically stripping away our privacy. But Frank Ahearn, the so-called 'Dear Abby' of disappearing, is attempting to show folks how to use those same technologies to regain your privacy, even helping you go as far as faking your own death. Ahearn is a professional skip-tracer who has hunted down people like Monica Lewinsky. In an interview with Ahearn on Network World, he says, 'One can legally disappear through the use of corporations and offshore corporations. The idea is to embrace technology and to become a virtual entity.' My favorite tip is that New Zealand is the place to land once you leap off the grid. Not only is it far from most of the rest of the English speaking world, he says, but it also has great beaches."
Time & money (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, what you want is ... (Score:5, Interesting)
... a bunch of phoney identities under which to wreak havoc. Meanwhile, keep your real name and reputation clean. When one of the 'evil' identities gets into trouble, kill it off.
Set these up early in life and keep them going with minor activity. Loan a fake SSN out to an illegal laborer to stay on the books. Then, when you hit it big in Vegas, you record the income under the false ID. That person 'dies' (Hey, it was a Mexican gardener anyway), leaving no trace of the cash. Party with it using the next ID, etc.
Let's fake a birth online. (Score:2, Interesting)
The Geek Plays Hide and Seek (Score:5, Interesting)
New Zealand has a population of 4 million.
73% of unmixed European descent. Demographics of New Zealand [wikipedia.org]
Metro New York City has a population of 19 million, and is ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse.
Approximately 36% of the city's population is foreign-born. In New York no single country or region of origin dominates. The ten largest countries of origin for modern day immigration are the Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Guyana, Mexico, Ecuador, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia and Russia. The largest ethnic groups in New York City are African American, Italian, Jewish, and Irish.
The New York City metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, and the city proper contains the largest Jewish community in the world. It is also home to nearly a quarter of the nation's South Asians, the largest African American community of any city in the country, and comprised as of 2008 a population of 659,596 ethnic Chinese. the largest outside of Asia. New York City [wikipedia.org]
The Islamic population in 2004-2005 was around 600,000. Columbia Presents First-Ever Study on Muslim Political, Social, Religious Identity in NYC [columbia.edu]
Manhattan has 354 million square feet of office space.
But New York remains importantly, if less visibly, a manufacturing center. There are no unmarketable skills, however obscure.
The fool on the run takes to the back roads, the Pacific, the Klondike - where the youngest child will point him out as the stranger. The one who doesn't belong. Doesn't dress the part. Doesn't act the part.
Not Australia (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Not Australia (Score:2, Interesting)
The problem with Australia, if you can get here (kiwis let every one in) is we have so many more asshole cops that want to check your licence at every set of traffic lights
I've been driving for around 16 years now, and spend more time on the road than most people would. In all that time, aside from random breath tests (where they didn't ask to see my license anyway), i've been stopped around 3 times...
The first was for no obvious reason, the policeman asked if i'd been drinking, didn't bother doing a breath test, and sent me on my way despite the fact that my car was obviously not quite up to roadworthy (bald rear tyres for a start). Didn't even think about asking for my license.
The second was because I had an expired registration sticker on my car (company car). They asked me a few questions and sent me on my way. Didn't ask for my license.
The third was when I had a really bad headache and a car pulled up behind me with very bright headlights which made it worse. I accelerated away very hard and it turned out the guy behind me was a policeman. Pulled me over, asked to see my license, then sent me on my way. No fine or anything but I didn't actually break the law apart from possibly reckless driving.
Not to mention the obscene terror laws (that they use on anyone they want, no need for a search warrant in Australia), or the random pedestrian frisking and pockets searches.
I've only once been pulled aside by the police while a pedestrian. I looked vaguely like someone they were looking for who'd been up to some pretty serious no-good. They asked for some ID to check that I wasn't the person they were looking for and sent me on my way.
I know there are bad cops out there but it seems they only ever bother people with a "friend-of-a-friend" or "distant-relative-of-a-friend" relationship to people I know.
Or maybe you live in or around one of the major cities? I hear it's a bit worse there.
FUBS (Score:3, Interesting)
"We are inundated with warnings that social media is systematically stripping away our privacy."
We are inundated with hair-on-fire cliches being used to preface a forced association between someone's inconsequential issue and some hot button topics and trigger words, in order to convince us that the association is valid and the issue is significant. Needing to use these is a good sign that the ensuing issue is too insubstantial to stand on its own.
Fear, uncertainty and uh-huh.
Re:Obviously (Score:3, Interesting)
many people of "middle eastern appearance" have never set foot anywhere near the middle east, which would make "staying" there rather difficult.
Take me for example. I have 0% middle eastern descent - I have Irish, English, a tiny bit of Scandanavian, two of my family tree paths are first fleeters, and yet I sometimes get asked where I'm from with Greece and "the middle east" being their two guesses.