How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, And Vanish Without A Trace

by Frank M. Ahearn, Eileen Horan

For the first time in paperback we bring you 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 Don’t break the law, but know how to protect yourself.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Technology, Science, Reference, Audiobook, How To

202 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Carisa]

Of course, by admitting on Goodreads that I read this book, I've ensured I'll never be able to take advantage of some of its lessons.

[Joni Baboci · Rating 1 out of 5]

Considering this book was written just three years ago, I mistakenly assumed that it would focus on online privacy and falling off the virtual grid. Unfortunately the book is a guide (and a bad one at that in my opinion) on how to actually disappear from the real world.

The author might have been a prodigy in the mid 90s but would suck at hiding your identity today - hence I guess he writes books now. Ahern sounds out of touch with the virtual world. He talks about Altavista - a very popular search engine in 1999 - which was sold to Yahoo in 2003 and had already lost its flair by than. Nevertheless Ahearn tries to sound like a social media guru: there is this part where he creates 15 aliases, posts nice things about his own Facebook page from these 15 aliases and then suddenly the webpage becomes a hit. That clearly shows this guy has no idea how social media marketing works IMO. Furthermore there's some parts like: don't use Facebook to keep in touch with old friends, send a letter. This statement pretty much explains the book. It really has some common sense ideas that anyone who would want to disappear would figure out by the end of the first day of planning.

At some point he claims that if people can get into your house they can find all kinds of information that you have attached to your products (warranty information etc.) and than they would be able to figure out your address. But what would be the point of finding my address if someone has already broken into my own home?

Even the examples from his professional life were not fun at all. Most of them sounded made-up. Don't read this. Just Google some nice articles about people getting caught while trying to disappear and you will have much more fun and much more information at the end of the day.

[Jen Ryland (jenrylandreviews & yaallday)]

Confession: I am completely obsessed with the show Hunted. It's a show in which teams of "fugitives" are sent on the run, and another team tracks them. Yes, I know that it's staged to a large extent - the producers must be doling out clues etc. to even the playing field. But the show also sets up a fascinating question -- if you suddenly had to go on the run and hide, could you figure out how to do it?

Obviously I hope that for me the answer is "yes," which is why I watch the show and got this book from the library. How to Disappear got off to a slow start as the main author spends most of the time bragging about how he is a former skip tracer can charm information out of anyone on the phone. I was getting bored until there was finally some intriguing advice -- a description about how to set up a series of mailboxes to hide your whereabouts. You have to have four boxes: main drop, burn box, safe box, bluff box. Don't quiz me on those. Eventually there was some good advice there!

Read more of my reviews on YA Romantics or follow me on Bloglovin

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

How To Disappear is very analog tradecraft for the rest of us. Ahearn is a former skiptracer, and he now works the other side, helping people disappear. While the image might be glamorously faking your own death to live on a tropical beach, the real world of not being found is a lot of scared and abused women.

Ahearn's basic method as a skiptracer was pretext calling. He'd call up various company, utilities being particularly vulnerable, pretend to be his target, and get their current account details. Occasionally this required some creativity: a classic car enthusiast couldn't go without a magazine subscription, but on the whole customer service representatives are easily fooled.

Companies have a lot of data on you, most of which they don't actually need. Getting this data deleted is hard, so it's much easier to make small 'corrections' to your personal information. Misspell your name, transpose digits in your social security number, update your address to a PO box, set your phone number to a pizza place.

But going off the grid entirely is hard, so you need to begin setting up new legitimate services, using prepaid cellphones and PO boxes as cut outs. Ahearn is frustratingly vague on the details of working a job and paying rent while disappeared (I guess he doesn't want to give away his whole business in the book), but the safest thing to do is to incorporate a company with a generic name and have it serve as your cut out to the financial world. And while you're setting up a legitimate hidey hole, investigate as many dummies as possible, leaving dead-end bread crumbs for skiptracers.

The final bit of disappearing as anyone who has watched Monty Python knows, is not to stand up you idiot. Don't use your any social media service. Don't log in to anything with an account that can be tied to you. Don't contact people from your old life. If there's close family who you absolutely can't cut contact with, use a series of automatically forwarded cellphones to communicate. As with intelligence tradecraft, it isn't hard, it just takes time, money, and a lot of discipline. More discipline. No, more than that. You really can't be too disciplined.

How to Disappear isn't that old of a book, but it feels older, and much more resolutely analog than something published in 2010. But Ahearn is an amusing raconteur, which smooths over some of the rough spots.

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't remember where I found the pointer to this book. Or maybe I can, and I'm just giving you some disinformation in case you are compiling a dossier on my reading referrals.

This book encourages the above sort of paranoia. It's an interesting and informative read but I think it's hampered somewhat by the authorial voice, which often veers into what sounds like textbook noir-detective-speak. I get that a skip tracer needs to be hard-bitten and tough. Swell. Now, tell me what you came to say, without the grit in your teeth.

There's much valuable information here, though, if you are willing to sort through the extra padding. It's amazing how much of what one thinks of as one's own personal data is in fact public and free for the harvesting. I don't have any immediate plans to disappear for some unmarked island in the tropics (or do I?) but this book was worth reading anyway.

[DoctorM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less a concrete how-to guide than a set of issues to think about for anyone who does want to pull the vanishing trick. Ahearn notes that, post-2001, it has become harder and harder to disappear, and harder still to acquire a new identity, and he stays far away from telling a reader how to do anything that might be illegal. Nonetheless, for all of us who dream of escaping into new lives, or who've ever thought about being a character in a thriller novel...or who might have to flee from oppressive lives (see the She's A Flight Risk blog by the still-mysterious Isabella V. from some years ago)...it's a book worth reading, even if only for hints about increasing one's privacy levels and for vicarious thrills.

[Bookjazzer2010 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected. Written more for folks who really need to hide from stalkers or dangerous people. There are a few tips for making identity theft more difficult.

[Michael K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read several books on this topic. Each of them go on in slightly different directions. Each of them were good and well worth the time to read just for the sake of knowing what they have to teach you. I enjoy stuff like that as a just in case kind of thought. Entertaining and worth it for information's sake!

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book more for entertainment than actual action; I was curious about what the author would say one should do to "hide". I was also interested from the "making yourself a little less discoverable" point of view as it seems personal information is being sucked up by any and everyone.

Well, the book was pretty good, an easy read and the author provides some interesting, and somewhat entertaining examples of good and bad. I think, if anyone is reading the book with the thought of really "disappearing" you're better off taking a couple breaths and asking a couple questions and you probably should go to the police or FBI... they can do a few more things in a legal way to hide you. I would look at the guys or stuff in this book as an option if you just can't rely on or utilize an avenue like that.

The author does a great job getting you to understand just how easy it is to find out information on people (including you) and within the first few chapters you'll be able to find more info online about yourself than you probably want out there. The author does give some tips to help keep that info to a minimum and have some of it removed.

Overall, I thought the book was entertaining and informative and will make me think about how much information I let flow out about me. It's one of those books you can easily read in a weekend, so, why not? just buy it with cash or a prepaid credit card ;) LOL

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, the author's writing style is...wow.

"The Fat Man's wife was beautiful, and this girl had totally been hit by the ugly stick. Several times" -p. 38

"Very is still safe today, and you know what? We enjoyed giving her jailbird the finger. Fuck him!" -p. 74

"Even a decade after the dot-com bust, there's still gold in them there Internets." -p. 172

After choosing to see the writing style as entertaining and not a distraction, the book was mildly interesting. It's pretty amazing how much information someone can get about you just by making phone calls and "pretexting" as he calls it.

I have no plans to disappear and was just interested in what sort of information is out there about me and how to manage it. This book provided some good information from that perspective, but mostly spoke from the direct perspective of really trying to disappear, which was random and thought-provoking.

[Romulus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good paranoid fun. Even if you do not intend to disappear, you can enjoy the book for its fascinating, rather unusual — one might say crazy — counsel to those who wish to vanish without leaving a trace. Open at any page at random and become engrossed — and entertained. The style is of the chatty, blunt, matter-of-fact, no-nonsense variety, which I found very amusing.

The book was published in 2010, so it must be by now rather dated as a how-to manual — which makes me wonder whether one could really disappear these days — really and truly, without any trace? — given the constant surveillance that monitors one’s every move, the various ultra-sophisticated tracking devices et al?

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave it four stars because it gives such excellent information in a pretty straightforward way - I mean, if you want to disappear in an age where everybody can hack in and find your information online, this is the book for you. Is it the best-written book? No - this guy is not an author by trade; he's a guy people hire to out dirt on other people. He's credible, but you flip a few pages because he is not a wordsmith.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting but not at all necessary to read unless you are paranoid and or are in danger.

"If two people show up to your door in trench coats, it's the FBI. If one person shows up to your door in a trench coat, it's the IRS. Either way you probably don't want to open the door."

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great now I'm stressed out about how overwhelming it would be to disappear and how I can't ever actually do it because I checked this book out from my library like a chump.

[Kate The Book Addict · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to make you realize how what you may think is ordinary information no one could care about to realizing your data and life is being sold and your information you voluntarily gave away threatens your privacy and safety. We aren’t being safe enough with our data, and there’s a plethora of great information in this book on how to get your head on straight and stop exposing yourself to identify theft, etc. Loved it—really made me think.

[Elyse Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nearly impossible to go off the grid without a fat stack of cash. Really fun read though, this author is a character.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thankfully, I have no need to disappear, and, honestly, only a few people would even notice or care.

This book, aside from its jokey tone, is very serious and explains how, with what seems like would be millions of dollars, to leave town and hide your new location, etc.. This book is not about establishing a new identity, it is about leaving no trail, and leaving a trail of false leads. There are complicated ways of forwarding phone messages and setting up post office boxes that can keep you hidden. It sounded stressful and a lot of work.

If you do want to disappear, you should never buy a book like this on your credit card--pay cash. I think the library would rat you out too, but maybe not.

[Sour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buồn cười nhất ở cuốn này là sau khi đọc xong thì anh em nhảy lên goodread review rồi rate này nọ tùm lum :))) trong khi ông bác viết sách thì từ đầu chí cuối chỉ có căn dặn là Đừng có hở ra cái j cho chúng nó thấy!!!!
Nói chung cụ kể chuyện khá thú vị và buồn cười dù dưới cái vỏ tương đối nghiêm trọng. Nhưng rốt cuộc cuốn này chỉ đọc giết tjan cho vui còn cho cụ về vn chắc cụ cũng khóc ra tiếng mán vì ko áp dụng đc chiêu nào =))))

[Dave Harkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great title. Mostly about social engineering.
Colloquial.
Anecdotal.
Repetitive.
Somewhat entertaining.

[VY · Rating 4 out of 5]

I value privacy and anonymity, as I believe everyone should, which is the reason why I enjoyed this book. Maybe you would call the author paranoid, but a big chunk of our personal lives is being sold, whether without our knowledge or against our will. Advertisers, email lists, identity theft, data is the most valuable currency in the 21st century and we give a lot of it for free. Personally, I like making myself as invisible as possible online and even though this is no guarantee I won't suffer the same fate as the average consumer, at least I get to make the process of OSINT more annoying. Gotta work for the money after all :)

With that being said, the vast majority of this book does not consider technology. Sure, there are a few chapters concerning social media and networking as a whole, but it is simply insufficient. This shortcoming is, however, understandable, if we take into account the fact that the book is a bit old.

Another thing that I found slightly disappointing is that some of the tips are primarily addressed to residents of the United States. Again, it is impossible to create a universal manual that unifies the laws of Asia, Europe, America, etc. and then proposes ways to minimize taxes, open a corporation or something like that, but a few pages could be included to at least explain whether the procedure is similar or if the reader has to start their own research on the topic.

Now, looking at the positives, I learned of some really cool websites here. Not all of them which were present in the book are available today, but I assume trying to access them using the wayback machine would still show something. The ones that I could access were:
- White pages
- Addresses
- Anywho
- Yahoo people search
- Zabasearch
- Intelius
- Melissa data
- Local calling guide
I find the ethics of search engines devoted to people very debatable. Considering that everyone is entitled to privacy, this feels like a major intrusion. It could be useful for OSINT, as I am aware there are groups who try to find missing people to bring peace to their families, but if you are someone actively on the run, this could pose serious risk. Luckily, the author provides details on how to (at least attempt to) take your information down, but for better or worse, the Internet lasts forever.
Lastly, I didn't know such a thing as virtual number exists, so that was also new.

[Cavak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for researching a thriller. Brisk and to the point, mixed with some dry humor in there. Sometimes feels like it's made up. But, well, it's probably because of that that it's entertaining to me. Deliciously paranoid too! The best way to get into the mindset of someone who's willing to get dirty but not break the line for results.

I know that the tips on the online privacy are dated nowadays. Google and Gmail are free but traceable. At least one of the other services he recommends were revealed to be traceable later. You can still get traced from public wireless. Dedicated cyber stalkers can break Ahearn's misinformation section with frightening efficiency. I'd say those are the weakest portions of the book. Give it a little leeway though: it is about a decade old.

How to Disappear is a quick run-through on the lengths people need to take to disappear from the radar. How exhausting! No, I don't believe it's the best guide for someone who does desire to disappear. I think it's often better to go legal than here.

I really feel for the ones who are forced to do it for their actual survival (as in to escape from predators or stalkers). I'm glad it's not always used for scummy purposes. Also another encouraging read to get out of debt. Whew!

[Kevin Tumlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I swear this was for author research

I’d be breaking one fo the author’s rules right now, if I were trying to disappear. But I’m staying put, and this book was a resource for the thriller novels I write. As an author, I found this to be an invaluable guide to what it would take to disappear.

As a reader, I just enjoyed the thrill of the idea, that one could start over with a new life and a fresh start. With the right planning.

The author is kind of a shady character, honestly,with some passes at being “a good guy at heart.” He’s open enough about committing numerous illegal acts, about troubles with both US and foreign governments, and about doing his work on behalf of criminal organizations like the mob. All that said, his insight into this world is sharp and at times hilarious.

I can’t vouch for whether the information herein can actually help you disappear, but it largely appears to be a common sense approach to protecting your privacy, at one end of the spectrum, and erasing your tracks entirely on the other end.

I highly recommend this book for authors, for privacy enthusiasts, and for the chronically paranoid. Just don’t buy it with a credit card.

[The Time Traveler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical Pragmatic Disappearing Advice

Personally disappearing is a complicated and risky venture. If your not a perfectionist and are not morally flexible disappearing completely may be next to impossible. With that said there are people that do it everyday, but it takes more work (a lot more work) then just being part of the system. Simply, living a correct legal life is the easier option. In the event of an emergency using this book as a resource and practicing the methods will prove useful. I would recommend further reading from multiple sources and also practicing simulated stress drills to be successful.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not disappearing, honest! But, I am intrigued at the process, sparked somewhat by the treatment of this issue in the popular (and super-fantastic) TV series "Breaking Bad," as well as the recent follow-up "El Camino."

I'm a writer myself, and knowing what you'd actually have to do to make a character "disappear off the grid" completely is essential knowledge. Ahearn does a good job of this, and even better, this book is fairly recent so it covers social media and the ever-increasing reach of our digital footprints. Also, it's a fun read even if you're not a writer or planning to disappear.

[Gigi Retzo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah. Very dated. Not useful. Wish it would have had a little more on how to minimize our digital footprint.

The bit that stuck out like a sore thumb the most imo is the contradictory message between “disappearing = freedom” and “disappearing = being on guard and vigilant for life thereafter”... like yeahhh if you’re life is am threatened and you have no alternative, maybe it’s best you disappear, but that’s not really freedom if you ask me. More like jumping into another cell. One that involves being disconnected, lonely, and perpetually afraid of the past coming to bite you when you least expect it; as soon as you “make one mistake” and take your guard down. How liberating!

People in abusive relationships for example would probably be better off with community support than finding themselves living on the run without anyone to turn to. No? :-/

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I ever want to disappear, this would be the book to read. Well, actually, I think I’d splurge and hire Mr. Ahearn. He does a good job of laying out what needs to be done and it is a shitload of work – and the book is probably a good answer to “Why the hell do your services cost so much?”

Even if one is not planning on disappearing, the anecdotes are entertaining and the information offered is helpful. Those fearful of identity theft or who are being stalked can get some helpful tips here. And, frankly, he is very blunt about how hard it is to vanish in today’s digital world. Scary …

[Cem Binbir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kitabın isminden hareketle, dijital verilerin korunmasıyla ilgili bir şeyler okuyacağımı düşünmüştüm, ama yanılmışım. Yazar gerçekten ortadan kaybolmak isteyen, bu yolda hayatında büyük değişiklikler yapmayı göze alan insanlara rehber olmayı amaçlamış. Anlatılanların bir kısmı güncelliğini yitirmişti, bir kısmı ise sadece ABD'de uygulanabilecek yöntemlerdi. Beni kitapta çeken tek şey, aralarda kısa kısa anlatılan insan hikayeleri oldu.

[Natalie K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disappearing is hard to do, especially in this day and age of computers, but former skip tracer Frank Ahearn is up the challenge! Drawing on his experience finding people, he has now switched sides and uses this book to teach us how to hide and be a bit harder to find in this privacy unfocused world. Well worth a read (or a reread, if you, like me, sped through this because it was so darn interesting!).

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun and interesting book describing in simple and entertaining terms how to disappear.
The tips on cyber security and how personal information can be found by anyone looking were enlightening to say the least. Everyone leaves a trail and this book will tell you how to get rid of your footprints. It would be a handy reference as well for mystery writers.

[Samuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent read with some, more or less, common sense advice on how to start a new life. I was hoping the book would be more caulked full of expert advice, however, I did enjoy the stories which come straight from the experience of author and skip tracer Frank Ahearn. The main insight I garnered from How to Disappear was that it's not cheap nor easy and is very tedious.