Change Identity

New Identity Planning - Update January 2, 2012

- Do you need to do some web surfing to get your facts together before departure? Do that surfing at an Internet cafe or at the library. Don't do it from your home PC.

- Don't make calls related to your coming departure on your home phone. Instead purchase a prepaid cellular phone. Only make your usual calls on your home phone and make all calls relating to your upcoming vanishing act on the paid cellular. When you're ready to take the plunge, crush the cellular phone completely and discard it and buy another when you arrive in your new location. Do not give your new prepaid cell phone number to anyone. All you have to do is make a single phone call from your home phone (or a relative's phone) to your new city and you will have provided any snoops with a 24 carat solid gold link which they will use to blow your cover.

- Do not call your old doctor from your new location to request medical records. If you can, abandon your old records but if you must have them, tell your doctor you're leaving town and aren't sure where your employer will eventually place you so you need to take the most relevant records with you. If you have to promise to return them, lie.

- Never attempt to change the address on a magazine subscription from your old address to your new one. Sounds stupid but many a vanisher has been tripped up in just this way.

- Do not rush your pre-vanish planning. Take at least several months. The longer the better as long as you don't forge links between your old and new selves.

- Confide in no one, no one at all. Do not change your daily routine. Go about your business as normally as you can. Do not alter your personal relationships. These should also appear normal.

- You can call accounts up and "correct" the social security number they have on file. Confirm that the number is correct and use the occasion to change the number. Don't change the first three numbers however (unless you want to appear to have come from some other distant state). You can load account files with misinformation with a series of phone calls.

- If you're really serious about covering your tracks, you can setup a foreign mail forwarding service right on the Internet. Just do a search for "foreign mail forwarding" on Google and select one. Unfortunately their services don't come cheap but you'll have a foreign address that is entirely untraceable. The Caribbean island of Nevis is one of the few place on earth where the government and the banks take privacy very seriously. This address can then be used as an intermediary address between you and your offshore bank if you go offshore with some of your cash.

- Go to www.jfax.com and get an online fax number. For a few bucks you get an untraceable fax phone number. When you get a fax they send you an email notice. Nice service and it's secure. Give them junk info or misinformation when registering. Give them only a Yahoo or Gmail email address.

- When you order your prepaid cellular phone, ask if they will issue you a number in some distant area code. Many cell companies will offer this service. If they charge a few more bucks - cough it up as it's a bargain.

- Once in your new area, demolish your cellular phone every two months or so and replace it preferably with one with some other area code. This way your calling location will remain a complete mystery.

- Rent a storage locker and place a very good lock on it. Place all the materials that might reveal your plans in it. On the morn of your vanishing act visit the locker and destroy everything.

- A Nevada, Wyoming or Delaware corporation is a handy thing. You can rent mailboxes and open bank accounts all in your corporate name without revealing your own name, which makes it much harder to track your activities.

- When you open your corporate bank account do not give them your new phone or address. Use a dummy address and give them a invalid phone and say "the phone won't be installed for a few days yet". Do not give them your new prepaid cell number as it's activity can be traced.

- Do all your new banking through the ATM or online. Avoid showing your face inside the bank.

- During your last months at your old location you might want to consider using whatever frequent flyer miles you have to take a vacation. But be sure to travel to a place distant from your intended new location. Any other frequent flyer miles should be abandoned as they create an easily tracked link.

- Forget library cards and registering to vote (though you can easily register under a fake name and use the card as useful new ID).

Remember, fail to plan and you can plan to fail. Take your time. Pay attention to details or it will all add up to nothing.

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