
How to disappear in America without a trace - chaosmachine
http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/vanish.htm
======
bluesmoon
I'm confused by this block: "This information is offered in the public domain,
copyrighted by Fredric L. Rice (1999-2009) who grants permission for some or
all of the text to be used elsewhere for non-commercial purposes."

If you offer a creative work into the public domain, you're giving up
copyright and can no longer dictate how that work is used.

~~~
philwelch
He's trying to gloss over international laws. In some countries, you can't put
something in the public domain except by your copyright naturally expiring.
It's not the best example of legal writing, though.

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jdietrich
This is all a bunch of tin-hatted flim-flam, but I would be seriously
interested in seeing what advice a group of actual security professionals
would put forward.

Here in the UK, I can't begin to imagine how hard it would be to go missing
and stay missing. Cars are tracked by Automatic Numberplate Recognition
systems, bus and train stations all have plentiful CCTV, the cash economy has
been decimated - its an interesting thought experiment when considering our
levels of state surveillance. As far as I can work out, your only options
would be destitution or a dinghy across the channel.

~~~
gaius
And yet [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-
missing-e...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-missing-each-
year-275000-britons-disappear-1801010.html)

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andrewvc
Wow, this is a trip:

 _Toss your wiping materials down the toilet. (If you're on an airplane, don't
toss anything down the toilet as it goes to a holding tank which can be raked
for evidence later. Carry-out your wiping papers with you inside your shirt
under an armpit and flush them in a normal toilet when you can. (Note: Visible
bulges under your shirt will be considered by flight attending employees to be
indicating the real possibility that you're smuggling drugs. If you must hide
a lot of wipe materials, you should distribute them among your body to
eliminate bulges, otherwise you may be escorted to a little white room and
made to strip. When they find you're hiding damp paper towels, you'll have
some explaining to do.)_

~~~
jcl
I liked the part telling you that satellites can record your conversations
from space by bouncing lasers off of your windows. And the part advising you
to bring along any police dogs you might happen to kill, to keep from leaving
evidence. And the part that gives "assistant to elderly Navajos" as a top
employment opportunity. Wonderfully imaginative, if nothing else.

~~~
barrkel
AFAIK, sound can be recorded using laser reflections on windows, but not I
imagine from space, where there would be too much atmospheric interference. I
also imagine that single glazing would help.

~~~
jcl
Not only that, but there needs to be some way to detect the bounced beam --
implying a ridiculous degree of accuracy in the placement of the satellite,
the smoothness of the glass, and the strength of the laser.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_microphone>

------
evansolomon
Very interesting articles from Wired where one of their writers tries to
disappear and there's a contest to find him:

[http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/08/author-evan-ratliff-
is-o...](http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/08/author-evan-ratliff-is-on-the-
lam-locate-him-and-win-5000/)
<http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/11/ff_vanish2/>
<http://www.wired.com/vanish/>

~~~
pyre
It was stupid because he was tweeting from a known twitter account. Presumably
no one that is trying to vanish should be holding on to such accounts.

------
Luc
What a dumb collection of paranoid fantasies.

~~~
philk
Even if the stuff in this guide actually worked I can't imagine the life he's
advocating being more pleasant than sticking around and dealing with your
problems in more than a few limited circumstances.

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argv_empty
The "destroy photos" step seems like it would be difficult to accomplish
nowadays. Most recent photos (of me, at least) are digital, and many people
have copies of the image files.

------
euroclydon
Here's another one: clear this article from your internet history.

------
CoachRufus87
Bring negative attention to powerful corporations / influential individuals

------
duck
I think it is missing one key piece of advice - move to Alaska. After living
there for several years I can't count how many people I ran into that were
running from something and they never seemed too worried about getting found.

~~~
philwelch
I wonder how you manage that. There's either two border crossings or a whole
lotta swimming to get there. Once you're there, though, I imagine you're home
free.

~~~
pyre
I imagine that most of the people there that were 'running from something'
weren't running from Border Patrol or the CIA. More likely they either skipped
bail for some minor charges, or were running from something like child
support, minor drug charges, etc. Things where people have no heavy motivation
to seek you out other than to put your name on 'watch lists' (e.g. someone is
notified if you use a credit card in your name or something like that).

~~~
philwelch
Wouldn't border patrol check against the watchlist? Canada at least knows if
you're on the list of concealed handgun permit holders.

I guess with enough forest to sneak through and a "clean" buddy to drive
through the borders and pick you up, you'd make it. This kid did it, and he
was one of the first big BC Bud smugglers:
<http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7683923/kid_cannabis>

~~~
rdtsc
If you sneak over the border, wouldn't you just want to stay in Canada rather
than go all the way to Alaska?.

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julius_geezer
Without spending a lot of time on Wikipedia and looking at SSI statements I
can't verify this, but I'm fairly sure that many years ago I worked with a
murderer on the lam, who remained at large for a good twenty years till people
recognized him from America's Most Wanted. He had been a white collar worker
and was then a short order cook. His big asset was drabness. He did not stand
out, he did not say much, and if you thought you might have seen him you could
not say where or how. I think this sort of thing must be a lot harder to do
now.

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lvecsey
Very impressive how resilient society is, if you combine this article with the
current economic recovery. The sheer number of checks and balances keeps it
going.

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xilun666
While the author says stuffs like "not to be used by bad persons", he also
writes long shits about evading pursuit in the woods, killing dogs as needed,
or getting out of cars while an helicopter is watching. Definitely weird,
paranoid, but entertaining. You can indeed find stuffs in the same spirit in
some Hollywood movies -- "Enemy of the State" comes to mind.

