Protecting Identity

[Sharing Lights]

Learning How To Disappear
By Frank M. Ahearn

Most Saturday afternoons I head to the local bookstore. I love to watch people reading books about offshore banking, hiding assets and how to disappear. It’s usually your typical middle-aged guy dreaming about a new life. I watch as they get caught up in their imaginary world. Their eyes light up at the thought of leaving all their troubles behind. Reading all those great stories about beach-front living, escaping into oblivion, hiding your assets, and not paying taxes. However, not one of those books shares the flip-side. They don’t tell you about the skip-tracer who sits in his office and is paid to find people who did what you are dreaming of.
A little tid-bit on skip-tracers, we do it because there is an adrenaline rush in what we do. What’s even better is I get to bill my client and make some money. As we say in my office, ‘its all about the Benjamins’. If your name comes across my desk and the money is right you are my hunt. I will spend my day finding your mistakes, be it through the utility company, the cable TV Company, or that collect call from Cabo San Lucas to your sister Edith. I have found many people from Boston to Bali. Usually I find them because of the little mistakes they make before they departed or while basking in the sun. Let me share a few thoughts with you about escaping. Here are the usual mistakes: The woman from Beverly Hills who called her doctor asking for her medical records to be shipped to Anquilla. A gentleman from New Jersey who stole money from his company and hid in the Dominican Republic and then had Barnes & Noble change his shipping address to his beach-front condo. The list goes on and on. When you pick up and leave to escape your creditors or for other reasons, there are companies out there like Ahearn Group (www.ahearn.bz) and many other excellent ones that love the challenge of finding you. To skip-tracers it’s a game we get paid to play. We can make as many mistakes as we want; the one you make is the one that most likely leads us to you. Sit back, take some notes and understand the game from my point of view.


Frank Ahearn is considered the leader in phone listings and international skip tracing. www.ahearn.bz If you want to dissapear or to find someone who has disappeared, Frank is the man to talk to. Visit his website for contact info





Most people read a book then pick up and go. They simply disconnect their services with no forwarding address and leave. Big mistake; take your time and follow the below steps for making your escape last. Okay first step, do not use your home, work or cell-phone, and do not use your calling card. Do not use any of your credit cards to purchase anything in the place you are going to escape to. You should develop your plan at least six months before you hit the road. In the meantime have all of your services, cable, electric, phone bills forwarded to any GPO in the country. Call those companies every month and find your balances and pay them. Make sure all the bills go to different states. Have a little fun: one month have them send it to Oshkosh the next to Bogota, New Jersey. Let them know they have the wrong Social Security number on file and have them change it. Next month give them your cousin Henry’s phone number in Toronto in case they need to reach you. The key here is to load your account with so much information you are creating misinformation.
Go online and get yourself a Jfax (www.jfax.com) account. For $9.99 per month you can get a phone number in any state or almost any country from Jfax. When someone calls your Jfax number, which will have your personalized recording on it, the message will be forwarded to your email address and you will be able to retrieve that message from anywhere in the world. Make sure the email address you give is a Yahoo or Hotmail address. Pay for your Jfax account for at least one year. This way there will be no transactions on your credit card in the coming months. Some skip-tracer trying to identify your number will only be able to get an email address from Jfax. What’s also great about Jfax is you can fax directly from the Internet if you need to. Do not do any of your searching from your home or work computer. Go to an Internet café and do all of your research there.

[Sharing Lights]

Go buy yourself to a pre-paid cell-phone and never give anybody the number. Make sure you can dial an international number with your cell-phone. If not, buy a pre-paid calling card then throw it away when it expires, do not reload it. With the pre-paid cell-phone get a phone number that has an area code in another state. When you order your pre-pay cell-phone pay cash and give them a different name. Never call anybody with that phone, the number might show up on his or her caller ID. Start calling where you’re looking to escape to from your pre-paid cell number or calling card. Dump that phone every month, yes, the actual phone, and get yourself a new one. Get a new cell-phone with a different number and a different area code from the original phone. By doing this no one will be able to track where you have called. Remember if you make one call from your home, work or cousin's house that is all I need to locate you. Get yourself a locker and leave all your tools in the locker, never bring them home or to work. If you accidentally toss them in the trash, then someone who is searching your trash will find them. When you are ready to escape you can empty your locker and destroy all information that could leave a trail straight to you.
Go online and get a mailbox from Mailbox Etc. (www.mailboxetc.com). Open up a corporation online in that state. Have all mail go to the above address. Make that address your service of process and your registered agent.




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When you have all your corporate information. Take a trip to that state. When you go to the bank, you will sit down and open an account. The person opening the account will call Telecheck which is a service bank used to search whether or not you have any overdrafts left over from other banks. They will run your name and there will be a record of you in any state that you've open an account in. So any skip-tracer with half a brain will find that account and locate your mailbox at Mailbox Etc. Give the person you open the account with your Mailbox Etc. address. Do not give them a valid phone number or one of your pre-paid numbers. Like the song says 867-5309 its one number you can’t forget and it’s a great conversation piece with the banker. Tell them the number won’t be in service till next week.
Then contact Idealogic (www.idealogic.com) in Canada and have them open a Canadian corporation for you. Give Idealogic all your information from the above chosen state. Once you receive all your Canadian information open an account with BMO (www.bmo.com) which they should do via-mail or possibly online; if not, a visit to Montreal is always great. Once you have all of the necessary papers have Idealogic, BMO and your bank in the chosen state forward everything to your Mailbox Etc. address. When all is said and done have all of your mail from the Mailbox Etc. shipped to you, and when all papers are in hand from the Mailbox Etc. forward them to New York, then from New York to Chicago, then on to Atlanta, create a big loop. Do all your banking online, the bank will be happy not to mail you your bank statements. Remember always access your accounts from an Internet café.


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You can then transfer money from the US to Canada and then from Canada to your chosen offshore haven. Belize is a good place - they do not adhere to MLAT (mutual legal assistance treaty). Never use your ATM from your US account; never use your ATM from your Canadian account. Use your Canadian and U.S. accounts as buffers for your chosen offshore haven.
One time I was searching for an individual who for the life of me I could not find: I could neither find a forwarding address, nor any credit trace, nor transfer of motor vehicles, then it dawned on me that this person must have flown to his destination. So I checked the airlines and bingo, there it was: his frequent flyer account. On his last trip he had miles added to his account and I knew exactly where he went. Pay for your ticket in cash at the airport.

Don’t use your frequent flier account. Cancel your blockbuster membership. Do not transfer any of your magazine subscriptions. If you are receiving any type of direct deposit from the government, such as retirement money, do it through the account you opened. Don’t get a library card in your new location, do not get cable service under your name. Do everything through the name of your foreign corporation. Make sure your foreign corporation has no similarities to your name or anything from your past.

Calling family and friends is a touchy issue, depending on your personal situation. With technology today you just don’t know when you call someone from, say, Costa Rica, whether or not your number shows up on their caller ID. If it does and they happen to call you back, someone will be able to track your location. All your effort and hard work will be thrown out the window. So if you need to get in touch, get yourself another pre-paid cell-phone from a different place and call those you need to speak to through your cell-phone. Dump the phone every so often.

So the above are the basics of how to disappear. Take your time, do your research and enjoy the beach.

.....................

[weishaupt1776]

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/45/Disappearing.html

[Sharing Lights]

May readers discern whose approach makes more
sense on the long run.


For accuracy:

I quote quite accurately.
Don't I?
Did I list the author?

Goggling "Learning How To Disappear
By Frank M. Ahearn" may have taken from 15 to 30 sec longer than just posting the link.




Now, let's discern precisely:

Since I notice my posts are too long on "your scales"
and even blocked me because that didn't please
your "scales"
I do not mind if every my Post wold be backed
up by your links.

As for those posts and there quite a few of those,
where I write and all links lead back to me,
you are free to use your imagination.

If 1. and 2. are still not convincing by common sense, then, you may consider
the fact even though
his dishonor - Roy Bean made a loud claim that nobody reads me,
the real figures which all can see fro any member here, including me, may
translate into certain revenues and popularity of the Forum if band width
is of concern to you.

There is an alternative way as well.

I noticed that most lawyers do have lawyers mentality.

When they are moderators also is there a possibility that a Martial Law and
curfew are declared under their jurisdiction:
how much and when other mere mortals may post?

May we?

Till a "brave" blocking or lawyer-moderator ruling.

I reiterate again:

Important information should be posted and preserved both: on the Forum and
on the PC so that whatever may happen later to the original Website, all can, still,
enjoy the benefits or, at lest, those who care.

How many members here run into the wall trying to download quite precious files
in the Download section?

For how long?

Had some listened to me and downloaded what could
to their PC right away and reposted in the corresponding
Threads, many, many members could benefit now instead of feeling frustration.


Be assured that I raised my arguments for those
who care to read them - the others may click
the remote on a next post/thread where my
avatar is not seen.

Easy enough.

I wish time spent for the link above was equally
spent fixing the download section which is
un-functionable for TOO LONG and beyond reasonable,

as well as making sure that members who pay for products - receive them.

Not so?

Many still complain to me privately of that because
they know I act fairly.

I truly feel bad for them and truly love
the original spirit of Sui Juris - not lawyer-ship
but Sovereign-ship!

Cheers, lawyer-moderator.

I spoke nothing but truth under the 1st Amendment
and God given Right!

Sovereign,
Sharing Lights

All Rights Reserved,
Without Prejudice,

By Spartan Stand,

Not subjected to lawyers, judges, and moderators -
who are foreign to God's/Nature's ways -
and of quasi-authoritarian powers.


The colors of Liturgy are flying and intact;
so is the Spirit!

Amen!

[mrg]

I do not think Weiss was dissing your posts, but was maybe trying to add to it.

I haven't seen him complain about the length of your posts.

Has he?

I thought the link enhanced your posting rather than attack it.

Your reply did make some good points, but I doubt Weisshaupt meant anything against your posts by posting the link.

If he did maybe he will say so.

I enjoyed both your post and the link.

I enjoyed your reply, but still don't think Weiss meant to attack you for the way you post.

I don't think he can fix the download problem or the other problem you mentioned either.

He just put a link.

I like your posts.

I liked the link too.

I receive Escape Artist magazine regularly.

I enjoy it.

[Sharing Lights]

Originally Posted by mrg

I do not think Weiss was dissing your posts, but was maybe trying to add to it.

I haven't seen him complain about the length of your posts.

Has he?

I thought the link enhanced your posting rather than attack it.

Your reply did make some good points, but I doubt Weisshaupt meant anything against your posts by posting the link.

If he did maybe he will say so.

I enjoyed both your post and the link.

I enjoyed your reply, but still don't think Weiss meant to attack you for the way you post.

I receive Escape Artist magazine regularly.

================================================== ================

Dear Mrg!

You have a good, positive soul.
It is commendable that you try to see positive and
retain such vision.

It is, also, respectable, that you shared your views
and raise your voice for the individual in discussion.

You know that I mean that sincerely, as everything that I write
with few exceptions of sarcasm when such makes a point faster.

However, Truth and precision demand accuracy all the way.

I, respectfully, repost the link-answer by its act, which speaks louder
than your and mine opinions:


http://www.suijuris.net/forum/religi...onists-27.html Post# 263


And, let's face it, how is that a link in the case of merely two Posts is
really easier to read?

It would take longer to follow the link, to read, and come back, than to browse
two posts on the same page.

Not so?

That is indisputable, as I only argue when right and retreat when wrong
on my own and with apology.

The Terminator has, never, apologized for blocking the Thread and my replies,
while I defended not myself but the misunderstood Esoteric science of Kabbalah
from the people who never read anything of it but proceeded by silly gossip and hearsay.


Some of them even realized their errors in approach and shared that with me
privately but protocols of privacy do not allow me go past that.

There was no hint of apology from the man with shades and gun
who acted not any better than the image. (changed though now.)



Thread locking when you reply is nothing but an act of Tyranny and a cheap one,
as the moderator holds the button and does not fight you fairly but simply gasses
you out so to say!

A cowardly act in my opinion!

I perceived nothing more than an average human being
would have, had he/she been a part of that experience.


As for download and products, I believe moderators should speak on behalf of those
who do not have such opportunity and authority.

I would have fought for all!


With respect,

..............

[weishaupt1776]

Sharing Lights, have you ever been accused of making a mountain out of a molehill before ???

All i did was post a link which is easier to read than a post on a forum board

And you went Waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy over the top on that one

Wow !!

[Sharing Lights]

[quote]

Originally Posted by weishaupt1776

Sharing Lights, have you ever been accused of making a mountain out of a molehill before ???

All i did was post a link which is easier to read than a post on a forum board


What are you talking about?
Al I had were two small posts on one page and much space was left.

How is the link easier?


And you went Waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy over the top on that one

Wow !!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxx

No, on the contre, you made such reputation, yourself,
by tyranny of blocking without really understanding
what you did at the Sovereign Forum.

I am only trying to stay on top of things and speak
the basic Maxims in their core.

How are we better than Quatloos, then, if you acted
as their moderator: the cat in lime helmet?

She also blocks-locks like you do.

Why should she be looked upon any worse than
others, then?

Not fair.

Out of all people, I retain positivism and leniency
to even adversaries to a very high degree.

But, blocking is stealing, you should know what
that means.

Blocking-locking deprives the Author of access
to his, intellectual property, period.

What if one posted his/her personal data by mistake and
maybe even address or scan with SS#?

What if one posted someone else's data and can't remove it later,
punishing two people at once?

Should I continue or are we smelling coffee or cappuccino by now?

I raise very, very important point on behalf of many.



All Rights are Reserved by default and regardless
of disclaimers still belong to the Author unless
he/she explicitly sold his/her writings for profit,
assigned or relinquished the Rights.

My Procedural Rights always displayed below
each post, the same way yours are.

Blocking-locking is not it!

Not true?

Thread's blocking-locking causes, in terms
of intellectual property, theft, as no one can
even edit or delete his/her own writings i.e
intellectual property is stolen and that is,
plainly, disgusting.

I am right - you are wrong.
All with common sense can see that clearly.

Be a man if can, meaning, be responsible for your
acts and able to face them.


Do you believe, in your heart, if I were holding
the blocking button that I would have ever blocked
you or anyone?



Molehill?


The Undiputable Proof:

Can you be honest, mr. lawyer-moderator now?

[Sharing Lights]

This is the html version of the file http://www.senate.gov/~banking/_files/harrison.pdf.






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Testimony of John M. Harrison Rocky Hill, Connecticut 06067 Consumer Witness June 19, 2003 Senate Banking Committee hearing entitled “The Growing Problem of Identity Theft and its Relationship to the Fair Credit Reporting Act”.



Mr. Chairman, ranking members and members of the committee, I appreciate this opportunity to appear before your committee to share my experiences as an identity theft victim. My name is John Harrison. I am forty-two years old, a retired Army Captain and have resided in Rocky Hill, Connecticut since my retirement in December 1999. Until recently, I have been working as a corrugated salesperson since leaving the military. BACKGROUND: My introduction to the crime of identity theft began on November 5, 2001. On that day I was contacted by a detective from Beaumont, Texas who was investigating a Harley-Davidson motorcycle which had been purchased in my name and SSN. He tracked me down through my credit report. From that same credit report, the detective realized I was a victim of identity theft and he explained to me that someone had been using my name and SSN to open credit accounts and he pointed me in the right direction. On that very same day, I reported my identity stolen to the FTC through their website. I also contacted all three repositories, ordered my credit reports, initiated fraud alerts and began contacting creditors immediately. Once I received my credit reports, I filed a police report with Army’s Criminal Investigation Division which luckily had a branch near Hartford, Connecticut. Just one month later, on Dec. 12, 2001, Jerry Wayne Phillips was arrested in Burke County, North Carolina during traffic stop. He was riding the Harley-Davidson motorcycle the police officer in Texas was investigating. Phillips was indicted on federal charges in Texas, pled guilty to one 1
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count of identity theft, and is currently serving a 41-month sentence at a Federal Prison in Minnesota. What I’ve learned since November 5, 2001 is that Phillips gained control of my identity on July 27, 2001 when army officials on Fort Bragg, NC issued him an active duty military ID card in my name and social security number. In a taped interview, Phillips claimed the ID was easy to get. That occurred about 1-½ years after my retirement as an Army Captain. DAMAGES: The military id combined with my once excellent credit history allowed Phillips to go on an un-hindered spending spree lasting just four months. From July to December 2001, Phillips had acquired goods, services, and cash in my name valued at over $260,000. None of the accounts were opened in my home state of Connecticut. He opened accounts as far south as Florida, as far North as Virginia and as far West as Texas. I’ve identified more than 60 fraudulent accounts of all types: credit accounts; personal and auto loans; checking & savings accounts; and utility accounts. He purchased two trucks through Ford Credit valued at over $85,000. A Harley-Davidson motorcycle for $25,000. He rented a house in Virginia and purchased a time-share in Hilton Head, South Carolina. One of the accounts opened by Phillips was with the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES). He also wrote bad checks in these exchanges. I originally disputed this account in March 2002 when AAFES attempted to garnish my military retirement pay. I was able to stop the garnishment by providing supporting documentation to AAFES. They made a second attempt to garnish my retirement in January 2003 for the same debt. Unfortunately, my letter to AAFES went ignored the second time and the garnishment began the end of January. Eventually and with the assistance of Congressman Larson’s office, the garnishment was stopped in March 2003 and AAFES refunded the money that had been taken from my retirement pay. I have always been somewhat distressed at the military’s involvement in the theft of my identity. They issued the fraudulent ID card that 2
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[Sharing Lights]

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allowed Phillips to open all these accounts and quite obviously, someone was very negligent in their duties. The garnishment greatly added to that distress. FCRA RELATIONSHIP: While Phillips made creditors, banks, and willing merchants the monetary victims of this crime, it has been those same creditors and credit reporting agencies that made me a victim. I have struggled with the repositories, creditors, and debt collectors for 20 straight months now and still have many accounts and debts incorrectly reported in my name and SSN. My imposter has been in jail for 19 of those 20 months and no accounts have been opened in my name since his incarceration at the end of 2001. I have overwhelming documentation to verify I did not open any of these accounts and I’ve willingly provided those documents to all creditors I’ve found as well as the credit bureaus. I’ve discovered it’s more cost effective for creditors to write the debt off in the victim’s name than go after the real criminal, even after you tell them who and where the real criminal is. Credit bureaus hide behind the fact that they are only reporting what creditors tell them while at the same time, victims are repeatedly sending affidavits, police reports and detailed dispute letters proving the creditors are wrong. That is why it takes identity theft victims years instead of months to recover from this crime. From that first day in November 2001, I have been very aggressive about restoring the damage done in my name. I have sought out the fraudulent accounts and in most cases; I’ve contacted them before they’ve contacted me. I’ve dispute all accounts directly with the creditors following that up by disputing the accounts through the repositories. I’ve encountered a great many difficulties. While two of the repositories have done what I consider to be a fair job assisting me and responding to my disputes, one of them, Equifax has failed to meet nearly all the provisions of the FCRA. It took eleven months and three dispute letters to get a second report from Equifax. Further, I found the report they sent to me was not the same report they were sending to creditors. Both reports that Equifax has in their system still contain as many as fifteen fraudulent accounts. 3
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I also found that when I disputed accounts to any of the repositories, whether the results of the re-investigation come back with deleted or verified accounts, the accounts were rarely resolved. Creditors were either not accepting my dispute through the repositories or the dispute was not being sent to them. In either event, the majority of creditors continue to seek me out directly or through a debt collector. In some instances, I’ve had accounts deleted from one repository only to have it show up with another one. I’ve also encountered creditors that after I have initiated contact with them to dispute an account, sold the debt to or hired debt collectors that seek me out at a later time. I’ve also had difficulties with accounts that return months after I have successfully disputed them, like AAFES. Lastly, there have also been accounts that I’ve contacted and could find not record of a debt in my name and then months later their debt collectors are calling my home or showing up on my credit reports. It has been and continues to be a nightmare. I’ve accounted for over 100 bad checks drafted from four different fraudulent checking accounts. Phillips wrote bad checks in eight different states and they account for nearly $60,000 of the total debt. Unfortunately, the checking accounts have created significantly more complications for me than the credit accounts. While creditors have just three reporting agencies to choose from, banks and vendors that accept checks have a multitude of reporting agencies. Additionally, the majority of those reporting agencies, which maintain both positive and negative information on consumers, do not provide consumer reports nor are there systems in place to dispute negative information. I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to understand the checking situation to learn how to properly dispute each bad check that was written. My conclusion is, there is no system in place to assist an identity theft victim when banking accounts are opened in your name and SSN, but are completely removed and unrelated to your own banking accounts. This industry is well behind the progress that has been made in the credit industry. PERSONAL IMPACT: There is a still misconception by some that creditors, merchants, banks and others that sustain monetary losses are the only victims of identity theft. So often when speaking to someone about 4
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my situation the comment is made, “At least you’re not responsible to pay these fraudulent debts”. Somehow, that makes my situation seem less tenuous. I’ve invested over 1100 hours of my time defending myself and working to restore my credit and banking histories. I’ve filled eight notebooks with over 1500 pages of documentation. I can account for about $1500 in out of pocket expenses directly related to my identity theft. Higher interest rates have cost me over $4000. I’ve been unknowingly sued by at least one of the creditors. I’ve had my military retirement garnished. I’m not credit worthy enough to open any new accounts and bad checks reported in my name prevent me from opening any deposit accounts with banks. It was also during January 2003 that my own creditors began taking adverse actions against me as a result of the negative information contained in my credit reports. I lost $25,000 in available credit as my creditors closed accounts with zero balances or lowered my credit limit to existing balances. I had been with some of those creditors over ten years, but my history of always paying on time did not influence their decisions. EMOTIONAL IMPACT: I’ve always considered myself to be a very strong individual. During the twenty years I spent in the military, I was often singled out as someone that worked extremely well under stress. The length of time it takes to resolve a stolen identity, the frustration in dealing with companies that don’t understand the crime or it’s impact and don’t take the correct actions, repeatedly having to clear up the same accounts, the constant phone calls and letters from debt collectors is enough to cause anyone emotional distress. In September 2002, eleven months into my struggle, I began to have difficulties with anxiety and insomnia and my physician prescribed a mild anti-depressant. In January 2003, the problems with my identity were causing serious distractions for my work as a salesperson. I spoke with my supervisor about the problems and began weekly therapy in February 2003 through our Employee Assistance Program. I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As the doctor put it, my fight or flight instincts were stuck on “fight”. Those problems eventually led to my termination at 5
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