How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish Without a Trace

Ahearn, Frank; Horan, Eileen

ISBN 10: 1599219778 / ISBN 13: 9781599219776

Published by Lyons Press, 2010

Missing dust jacket; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G1599219778I3N01

Synopsis:

From the world's preeminent people finder?an insider's guide to disappearing

 

How to Disappear is the authoritative and comprehensive guide for people who seek to protect their privacy as well as for anyone who’s ever entertained the fantasy of disappearing?whether actually dropping out of sight or by eliminating the traceable evidence of their existence.

 

Written by the world’s leading experts on finding people and helping people avoid being found, How to Disappear covers everything from tools for disappearing to discovering and eliminating the nearly invisible tracks and clues we tend to leave wherever we go. Learn the three keys to disappearing, all about your electronic footprints, the dangers and opportunities of social networking sites, and how to disappear from a stalker.

 

Frank Ahearn and Eileen Horan provide field-tested methods for maintaining privacy, as well as tactics and strategies for protecting personal information and preventing identity theft. They explain and illustrate key tactics such as misinformation (destroying all the data known about you); disinformation (creating fake trails); and, finally, reformation?the act of getting you from point A to point B without leaving clues.

 

Ahearn illustrates every step with real-life stories of his fascinating career, from undercover work to nab thieving department store employees to a stint as a private investigator; and, later, as a career ?skip tracer” who finds people who don’t want to be found. In 1997, when news broke of President Bill Clinton’s dalliance with a White House intern, Ahearn was hired to find her. When Oscar statuettes were stolen in Beverly Hills, Ahearn pinpointed a principal in the caper to help solve the case. When Russell Crowe threw a telephone at a hotel clerk in 2005, Ahearn located the victim and hid him from the media.

 

An indispensable resource not just for those determined to become utterly anonymous, but also for just about anyone in the brave new world of on-line information, How to Disappear sums up Ahearn’s dual philosophy: Don’t break the law, but know how to protect yourself.

 

 

AN EXCERPT: How Not to Disappear

There are several books and Web sites that explain how to obtain a new identity. If you are a not a criminal or international spy, you do not need a new identity to safely and discretely disappear. . . . What people fail to take into consideration is how they can test out their new identity. Do you book a trip internationally and just wing it past customs? Do you speed in your car and wait 'til you get pulled over and have the cop run your new license? Perhaps you walk into a Social Security office with your birth certificate and apply for a Social Security number at the age of thirty-five and explain you have been living in a cave for the past twenty years? . . . New identities are a bad idea. Imagine that you are now Mr. Vincent Vega from Palm Springs, and you’re hanging out with your lady friend and her family sipping Pina Coladas and over walks your best friend from high school. This dumb nut starts calling you by your real name, Dexter Plaidpants. Just try explaining that to all at the table?cover blown. New identities are like roulette: It is only a matter of time until your number comes up!

 

About the Author:

Frank Ahearn is a privacy consultant who helps people who want to start a new life. He began his carreer working undercover in retail, looking for employees stealing from department stores. That lead to a career in private investigating and becoming a "skip tracer," a person who finds people who don't want to be found -- people who try very hard not to be found. Today he consults with people who, for a variety of reasons, all legal, want to remain invisibile and unfindable.

In 1997, when news broke of President Bill Clinton's dalliance with a White House intern, Ahearn was hired to find her. The intern turned out to be Monica Lewinsky. When Oscar statuettes were stolen in Beverly Hills, Ahearn pinpointed a principal in the caper. When Russell Crowe threw a telephone at a hotel clerk in 2005, Ahearn located the victim and hid him from the media.

Now along with his partner and co-author, Eileen C. Horan, Ahearn runs his consulting business out of a virtual office. His businesses include www.AhearnSearch.com, a global skip-tracing company and
www.Disappear.info, a company that works with people and organizations in their privacy needs.

His philosophy is: Do not break the law and disappearing properly leads to true freedom.

Born and bred in the Bronx, he now spends his time in Venice Beach, CA with long periods in New York City.

Bibliographic Details

Title: How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital ...
Publisher: Lyons Press
Publication Date: 2010
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket