-Caveat Lector- >From the Sovereign Society. =================================================================== 13 WAYS TO PROTECT WHAT'S LEFT OF YOUR PRIVACY AND PROPERTY RIGHTS =================================================================== Can you still obtain virtually complete privacy or asset protection without leaving your country? Yes, but the effort may be extremely costly -- not to mention illegal. In the United States, you would have to: * Sell all US real estate and convert it to cash without losing it for "Bank Secrecy Act" or money laundering violations -- or having it stolen. * Sell your motor vehicles and convert them to cash, again without committing a "privacy crime." * Sell your business(es) and convert the proceeds to cash, without authorities questioning you as to your "motives." * Close all US bank and securities accounts and convert the proceeds to cash, again assuming the same risks. * When your driver's license expires, don't renew it. This is illegal if you continue to operate a motor vehicle. * Resign from all organizations that might have your name on a list. * Cancel all subscriptions in your real name. * Cancel all your credit card accounts. * Allow all your professional affiliations to lapse. * Move to another state and find somewhere to live with all utilities -- including the telephone -- listed in another person's name. Pay rent in cash, of course. * Don't register to vote. * If you work, do odd jobs that can be performed without identifying yourself. Accept cash only-no checks. If you must accept checks, cash them at a check-cashing service, not a bank. Go to a different cash-checking service each time. It's more expensive this way, but the IRS may monitor regular customers of these services to see if they file tax returns. In following this procedure, you are likely to violate several federal laws. * Use a series of mail receiving services to receive all your mail. Pay others to complete the necessary paperwork, then give you the keys. This violates the written contract at most mail receiving services and may also violate state or federal law. Pick up your mail late at night when no one else is in the mail receiving service that might recognize you. * Assume a new identity using techniques in books such as The Paper Trip and The Paper Trip II. Eden Press, P.O. Box 8410, Fountain Valley, CA 92728; Tel: (800) 338-8484; Fax: (714) 556-8410). Some of these techniques are illegal. * Stop filing income tax returns. This is illegal if you have income above the filing threshold. * Use your new identity to obtain a driver's license in another state, using a hotel or mail receiving service in that state as your address. This is a federal crime if you obtained your new identity illegally. * Apply for a passport using your new name. This too is a federal felony if you obtained your new identity illegally. Be sure to leave the section asking for a Social Security number blank. Have the passport mailed to your most secure mail receiving service. When you receive it, keep it in a safe place, but not in a safety deposit box. These actions will make it very difficult for an investigator or anyone else to find you. If you are discovered, take your passport and your cash and leave the country. At the border, don't declare your cash to Customs. This is a federal crime if you're carrying more than $10,000. Are you willing to go to these lengths to achieve virtual anonymity? Fortunately, unless you're fleeing from gangsters, terrorists or the government, there's no need to take these extreme measures. You can still lower your profile to theft, lawsuits and government bureaucrats by using common-sense, remarkably simple, inexpensive, and perfectly legal techniques. Mark Nestmann's report, "97 Ways to Protect What's Left of Your Privacy and Property," describes 97 strategies you may pursue. Here are a few of his ideas that you can implement immediately: 1. Disclose your SSN only to companies and agencies that are legally obligated to ask for it or to obtain a benefit you cannot otherwise obtain. While non-governmental use of SSNs for identification purposes is essentially unregulated, the only companies that are legally obligated to ask for it are banks, brokerages, and employers, to report income to the IRS. Anyone who pays you more than $600/year as an independent contractor must also ask for your SSN. Organizations not legally obligated to ask for your SSN, but that routinely do so, include insurance companies, credit bureaus, and utility companies. You may be denied credit, service or employment if you refuse to provide your SSN to these companies. The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 USC 552a) requires that government agencies that ask for your SSN provide a "Privacy Act" statement disclosing the legislative authority for the request. You need not disclose your SSN to an agency that does not have such authority. 2. Request an alternative number to your SSN be used to identify you. Most states permit an alternative to the SSN to be listed on your driver's licence application or on the licence itself. Some insurance companies will assign alternative numbers as well, if you ask. Many people cite their religious beliefs as justifying the assignment of an alternative number. Several courts in different states have upheld this exception. See, e.g., Brunson v. DMV, BS 032384 (Cal. Super. Ct. L.A., Oct. 16, 1997). In a doctor's office or other situation where the SSN is requested, some persons leave the SSN entry blank or complete as "N/A." When later asked for the number, they simply say "I don't use it" or "I forgot it." 3. Don't permit banks or brokerages with which you have accounts to release information or honor redemption requests over the telephone based on your SSN alone. Insist on having a code word assigned, without which information cannot be released or redemptions made. This avoids unauthorized release of sensitive information or assets by persons who might obtain your SSN from public records or another source. 4. Don't put your name on your mailbox. This identifies you to curiosity-seekers, burglars, process-servers, etc. 5. Don't have anything sent or delivered to your home address. This greatly reduces the threat of robbery, burglary or surveillance. This precaution should include "common carriers" such as Fed Ex and United Parcel Service. It is simple matter for someone to call Fed Ex or UPS, use your name and telephone number, and have the customer service representative confirm a pick-up at your home address, thus disclosing it to the caller. Instead, have your mail sent to a post office box, mail receiving service, secretarial service or care of "General Delivery." Have common carrier shipments sent to these locations or the carrier's local office. 6. Don't use your residential address as a return address. Instead, use a post office box or other non-residential address. For sensitive correspondence, consider not using a return address at all. Of course, you should verify that the item is properly addressed and carries the correct postage. 7. Rent a box at a "mail receiving service." This will entitle you to use the service's physical address to list on your drivers' licence application and for other purposes where a physical address is required. Before renting you the box, the service operator will insist on positive identification showing a physical address. Some persons therefore visit a rent the box just before they change their residential address so the service doesn't have their home address on file. You will be asked to complete Form 1583, "Delivery of Mail Through Agent," a form that authorizes the Postal Service to disclose information about your correspondence to "an appropriate law enforcement agency for an investigative or prosecution proceeding." If possible, avoid completing this form. Some people return it blank or "forget" to sign it. The form itself states that its completion is voluntary. It is a federal crime, however, to sign the form (under penalty of perjury) if it contains false information. In most cases, your box number will not need to be noted as a "box" on a driver's licence or correspondence. Where it is illegal to call the box number a "suite" or "apartment" use the pound sign to indicate the box number. WARNING: Mail receiving service addresses are tracked by law enforcement and show up on credit reports as non-residential addresses. Nor will the Postal Service forward correspondence sent to a mail receiving service. 8. Guard your credit. If you've ever applied for a charge account, a personal loan, insurance or a job, chances are your credit file was checked. This file, maintained by credit bureaus, contains information on where you work and live, how you pay your bills and whether you've been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have a right to view the contents of your credit file. In addition, anyone who takes action against you in response to information received from a credit bureau -- such as denying your application for credit, insurance, or employment -- must give you the name, address, and telephone number of the company that provided the report. Addresses for the three largest credit bureaus are: * Equifax PO Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374-0241 Tel: (800) 685-1111 * Experian (formerly TRW) PO Box 949 Allen, TX 75013 Tel: (800) 682-7654 * Trans Union 760 West Sproul Road PO Box 390 Springfield, PA 19064-0390 Tel: (800) 916-8800 9. Establish password access to your computer and the programs on it. Many computers can be equipped so they will not "boot up" until a password is entered. Some operating systems and programs also allow you to designate a password to open the program or particular files. While this approach deters casual eavesdropping, most password programs can be defeated. For instance, passwords may be bypassed in many copies of Windows 95 by clicking "cancel" at the password prompt. In addition, "password recovery modules" for the following programs are available from AccessData, 2500 N. University Ave. Suite 200, Provo, UT 84604 Tel: (800) 489-5199; Fax: (801) 377-5426: * ACT * MS Schedule * Ami Pro * Novell NetWare 3.x/4.x * Approach * Paradox * Ascend * PFS * DataPerfect * Quattro Pro * Excel * Quicken Quickbooks * Lotus 1-2-3 * Windows NT Access * Lotus Organizer * Utility * MS BOB * Word * MS Money * XTree Gold 10. Turn off your computer when you're not using it. This precaution avoids your screen or files from being viewed or copied by intruders or passers-by. It also prevents someone from calling into the computer (if equipped with a modem) and copying, deleting, or sabotaging files. 11. Encrypt sensitive files or your entire hard drive. This provides much better protection than password access. A program called PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") provides state-of-the-art, virtually unbreakable encryption for individual files. PGP for Windows 95, Windows NT and Macintosh is available at most computer stores or directly from PGP, 2121 S. El Camino Real, Suite 902, San Mateo, CA 94403; Tel: (800) 536-2664 or (602) 944-0773; Web: http://www.pgp.com. You can also encrypt your entire hard drive or portions of it. The Internet site http://www.stack.nl/~galactus provides an excellent introduction to this subject. Look under "Security: Encryption: disk encryption." One program for this purpose for DOS, Windows 3.1, and (with limitations) Windows 95, is SecureDrive. http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/securedrive.html. A full line of encryption products is also available from RSA Data Security, 100 Marine Parkway, Suite 500, Redwood City, CA 94065; Tel: (415) 595-8782; Fax: (415) 595-1873; Web: http://www.rsa.com.html. 12. Store sensitive data on removable disks, and keep them in a safe location away from your computer. One company that manufactures removable high-capacity disk media is Iomega. Retail products from this company are widely available at electronics stores or directly from Iomega, 1821 West Iomega Way, Roy, UT 84067; Tel: (801) 778-1000; Web: http://www.iomega.com.html. Dispose of removable media securely when you're finished using it. 13. Delete sensitive files from your hard drive once you're finished working with them. Once magnetic media has information written on it, it is very difficult to disguise that fact. The "Delete" command in DOS or the "Empty Recycling Bin" commands in Windows 95 and on the Macintosh delete only the reference to files, not the data in the file itself.) For an excellent summary of the problem, read "Why a Normal Delete is not Sufficient," at http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/why-real-delete.html. For a list of programs available to securely delete files from DOS computers, look under "Security: File wiping" at http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers. Three programs available to wipe Windows 95 files are Mutilate, Shredder and M-Sweep. Mutilate is "shareware" and may be evaluated without charge for 30 days. You may download this program from ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win95/security/mutil220.zip. Shredder is available from STRATFOR, 3301 Northland Drive Suite 500, Austin, TX 78731; Tel: 972-669-4135; WATS: (888) 707-4733; Fax: 972-699-0088; Web: http://www.shredder.com. M-Sweep is available only to law enforcement, major corporations and "big 6" accounting firms, but not to the general public. Information on this program is available from New Technologies, Inc., 2075 NE Division, Gresham, OR 97030; Tel: (503) 666-6599; Fax: (503) 492-8707. Web: http://www.forensics-intl.com/tools.html. =================================================================== (c) THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY 1998 POST: St. Catherine's Hall, 1st Floor Catherine St., Waterford, Republic of Ireland TEL: 353 - 51 304 557, FAX: 353 - 51 304 561 MEMBERSHIP: One year, US$195/£119 E-MAIL: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] WEB: http://www.sovereignsociety.com =================================================================== The Democrats are the ones who will give you a loan. The Republicans are the ones who will guarantee you a loan. The Libertarians are the ones who will leave you alone. -- Cal Ludeman DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om