There are two ways of looking at your disappearance plan:
1. You make preparations to become someone else.
2. You remain your original self and simply disappear one day without reason.
There are good and bad points to both. Should you wish to change your name and obtain a new passport, remove as much information about yourself from the Internet as possible and make sure you leave no clues that you planned to disappear. If, on the other hand, you do nothing—continuing your life as normal until the appointed day and then simply disappearing—you will leave no clues as to why you went missing. In either case, you will need to do some research and plan how to best succeed with your disappearance.
Planning your disappearance so that you will never be found is a difficult task; time is needed to get everything in place: finance, cover story, and your new beginning. How and when you decide to go will very much depend on your own personal circumstances. For example, if you are in a really bad relationship where physical abuse is a constant occurrence, you may need to disappear sooner rather than later. If your life is simply going nowhere and you seek a fresh start, then you have time to plan in more detail.
Planning is like a puzzle; you have to get all the pieces to fit properly to make it all work.
Planning basically means gathering as much information as possible to aid in your disappearance, which will hopefully allow you to stay below the radar and never be found. You acquire this information through research. You may wish to know how to change your name, how to apply for a new passport, or what the possibilities are for finding legal work in a specific South American country. Your outline plan will help you build a list of questions you must ask yourself. These might include:
• Why are you going?
You should ask yourself this question very seriously—what is the problem the drives you to want to disappear? First of all, you should confront yourself and your fears and decide if disappearing is the right thing to do.
• Who do you leave behind?
There is always someone who loves you—mother, father, brothers and sisters, friends—and you must seriously think of the effects you’re leaving will have on them. In many cases, some of these people will wholly rely on you for support.
• What do you leave behind?
You may leave nothing behind, but even those with wealth can lose everything once they have disappeared.
• Can you clear your personal history as far as possible?
Everyone has a personal history from the moment they are born until the day they die; in this digital age there is more personal history publicly available than ever before. Removing this is not an easy task.
• Are you capable of using deception and disorientation?
Of all the parts of your plan, deception and disorientation are by far the most important. The deception will stop people from looking for and finding you.
• Where will you go and why?
There are many choices for you to make when deciding where you will go. You may plan to stay in your own country and simply change your name or the way you look, or you may go off to a foreign country and seek a new beginning altogether.
• How will you get there?
The modern world is a transient place, and it’s possible to travel to almost anywhere on the planet. However, many of these methods of travel require documentation that can be verified and traced.
• What finances and resources will you have in place when you leave?
It is not easy to disappear without some financial resources, especially if you plan to travel to new country. But withdrawing large sums of cash, selling off assets, and harvesting money may all help indicate that you intended to disappear in the first place.
• What will you do when you reach your country of destination?
In many cases, people will go to a new country, but you must plan what you will do once you reach your destination. For example, can you speak the local language, is it possible for you to get work, and can you comfortably start a new life in your chosen country?
• How will you avoid the past catching up with you?
In the case where your disappearance may lead the authorities or investigators to locate you, you will need to delete any traces that they could possibly follow.
• What skills you will need to acquire?
Your disappearance plan may require you to learn a new set of skills that will enable you to survive. For example, if you intend to live rough, you need to know how to become a scavenger and live off the land. If your plan is to go and sail the oceans, then you will need some skills in sailing and navigation.
• When to leave?
The best way is to simply leave at the most innocent moment. For example, in a restaurant with friends, excuse yourself and go to the toilets, never to be seen again.
As an example, this is what I would do if I were to make a plan to disappear and never be found. First and foremost, let’s say I have an overwhelming desire to disappear and forget about my family and friends, as this is one aspect we each have to come to terms with individually.
This must be a primary factor in your disappearance and there are several ways of doing it. Whichever way you choose, you must make it look real, provide a genuine motive if planned, or simply just not be there one day. If you only have the briefest of time to plan your departure then it has to be good. Below are a few examples of when to disappear.
• Scenario 1:
You are a downtrodden, abused forty-year-old housewife and need to get out of your situation. You have $750 in your joint account, $500 of which you put on a prepaid credit card yesterday. Without warning, you go to the supermarket on the pretence of doing the week’s regular food shopping. That morning you pack whatever you need into a small suitcase without anyone noticing. Your husband goes to work or lies on the sofa watching television. The kids have grown up or gone to school. You drive to the supermarket and withdraw the remaining $500, fill the car with petrol, drive out of state, and never look back.
Finding work overseas, where you only return home every few months, is a great way to slowly disappear, as those back home start to live their lives without you.
This requires little or no planning, but the chances of success of you never being found are slim. You could drive more than 1,000 miles, then dump the car at a small motel where you check in. Your money supply is limited so you will need to find work. Whether you are found or not will depend on if your husband and family want to find you. The only upside is you will have some time to yourself and be away from the abuse.
• Scenario 2:
You are a single thirty-year-old man; you work hard and are a good guy, but your wife has left you for another man and taken the children with her. She is very beautiful and thinks she can do better than you as a husband, so she files for divorce. You decide to disappear prior to the settlement, having made a detailed plan that involves you hitchhiking across Australia. You harvest as much wealth as possible, including the family home, car, etc. Prior to the divorce hearing, you fly to Australia to begin your two month walk— no one hears from you again.
Literally thousands of people disappear into the Australian bush while trekking every year. Most of them are found, but only because they want to be.
This plan requires a lot of careful planning and near perfect timing. The first thing on the list is that you secretly set up home in the next state, change your name, and only inform those who really have to know. With a new passport and driver’s license, together with your accumulated wealth, you head for Darwin in Australia to start your trek. But you don’t go trekking. Instead, you head for the harbor and look at the bulletin board at the local marina. There you will find vacancies for boat crews: some are “work your passage” and others require a small fee for your food. You get yourself to Indonesia and make your way to Jakarta, being sure that when you land you get some form of immigration stamp (otherwise you will have trouble leaving the country). From here on your trail will have gone dead—keep it that way.
So it is possible to just walk out of a situation; equally you can plan your disappearance in detail. If you can, start your plan to disappear at least one year in advance, eighteen months if it’s feasible. Next, play down or pretend to repair any current problems you might have, be they financial, job related, domestic, or romantic—allay any suspicion that you might have cause to disappear. Next on your list would be to consider where you would like to go and how you are going to get there. Your destination will impact the resources you will need to take with you. For example, could you find work in the country of your choice? How much money will you need to tide you over until you are settled? Are you capable, and would you be happy, living in a particular country? Once you have made your selection, can you get there by an indirect means, i.e. travel first to another country and then onwards to your final destination? How would you do this?
Do you need to change your name before you go? I would personally only change my first name and I would do all within my power not to let anyone know about it other than those who are absolutely necessary. Do you need to obtain a new passport and driver’s license? Again, I would apply for a new passport in my new name while retaining one in my old name; I would also ask for a new driver’s license.
Make a deception plan that really sounds true, and one that your family, friends, and neighbors will swallow hook, line, and sinker. For me, this is easy as I travel the planet on a regular basis anyway and no one, not even my wife, questions my movements. I could call her from Malaysia and say I was in New York, and nothing would be out of place—other than the time of course.
Unless your desire to disappear is immediate, then you should make a disappearance plan. Like everything in life, planning makes things happen in an organized way, and you will have more control over any situation. If you simply run out the door without thinking about where you will go or how you will live, your chances of success are limited. It is possible to leave almost immediately with very little money, but even this requires a rational and decisive transfer. Even walking out into the night and becoming another displaced person requires that you are warm, have somewhere to sleep, and food to eat. Additionally, simply walking out does not guarantee you will disappear for good.
In order to completely disappear and never be found, you need to plan in great detail. In some aspects, this might also give you time to reflect on the matter of your disappearance, as things can always change. If after all of your considerations you are still determined to start a new life, here is a basic disappearance plan.
• Decide you must and can really leave without having any regrets.
• Decide when and where you will go.
• Start a disappearance fund; harvest the money into a hidden stash.
• Start building your disappearance file; keep this in a secret place where no one will ever see it. Research as much as possible on all aspects of disappearing.
• Satisfy yourself that disappearing is possible, have no doubts.
• Determine how you will disappear, i.e. as a hobo, laborer, businessman, wealthy playboy, etc. This will be determined by your individual circumstances and personal wealth.
• Decide where you will go: investigate all the possibilities and keep the information in your file.
• Decide what you will do when you get there. Will you join the Foreign Legion, work for an Nongovernmental Organization (NGO), or take a job overseas?
• Do you need to learn a language in order to fit in or work in your destination country?
• Do you need to learn new skills to live and work in your destination country?
• Start your deception plan, e.g., show interest in traveling, joining a NGO, and tell others of your hopes and ambitions.
• Check and increase your disappearance fund. Find extra temporary cash work or sell something.
• Intensify your deception plan: let family, friends, and work colleagues know that you really want to go help famine relief in Africa, have a desire to walk across Australia, etc.
• Visit the first country of your choice. If finances permit, take a short holiday to your country of destination without telling anyone. Once there, test out the local banking and work visa rules, living costs, etc.
• Obtain information on changing your name, applying for a passport, and getting a new driver’s license. Keep the paperwork and forms hidden in your planning file.
• Plan how you intend to change your identity, if at all.
• Check and increase your disappearance fund.
• Adjust and refine your disappearance plan.
• Learn another language if required.
• Intensify your deception plan.
• Apply for an overseas work visa if required.
• Check everything is in place; apply for any forms you might need to change your name.
• Obtain a passport and driver’s license in your new name.
• Check your financial position, convert some of your cash into prepaid credit cards, or buy gold coins. Secure your cash.
• Book and pay for your flight (if required); the earlier you do it, the cheaper it will be. Do it all online.
Now it’s time to go.
Change your name. Keep this as secretive as possible and, although illegal to do so, continue with your old name until you disappear. Change only your given (first) name, say, from John to David, and add or remove a second given name, while retaining your family name (surname). Change your name on essential travel documents only, i.e. your passport and driver’s license. If you live in America, move to a different state for a while in order to do this, obtain an international driver’s license, and then move back to your original state. The idea is to finish up with a set of papers showing your new given name that no one knows about.
Travel on vacation to your preferred country of disappearance, but do not let anyone know you have gone. If you have the resources, travel there by a diversionary route. For example, you could say that you are going on business to Oman in the Middle East and book a flight accordingly. Once you have arrived in Muscat, buy a second ticket onwards to any country you like, such as Thailand, Indonesia, or Malaysia (I do this all the time—it’s really easy). Use cash to buy the ticket and use the passport in your new name. Immigration in some of the smaller airports is merely a question of a quick look at your face before stamping your documents and letting you through.
Warning: Don’t forget, you will need to reverse the process in order to avoid any overstay flags coming up on the Omani immigration system. That means returning to Oman on your new name passport and then using your old name passport to travel back to the United States.
Don’t waste your time sightseeing; get to work the moment you arrive. You will need to organize a bank account and set up a residence address. The latter is fairly easy in many countries, and a post office box address will suffice as a temporary measure. Be aware that PO boxes will need emptying on a regular basis, so see if you can get one that does mail forwarding.
Once you have decided which country you plan to disappear to, you should first plan a vacation there. Belize City is a perfect place to disappear.
Depending on your country of choice, you will need to investigate what processes and documentation you require to set up a local bank account. This generally requires a residential address and a copy of your passport, but in my experience, banks are only too happy to take your money. If you can, set up an Internet banking system, whereby you can transfer money in and out from any location. Do not apply for credit cards until you have had the bank account for several months and have made at least two or three visits to the bank— always try and see the same individual at the bank, as this will ease the process. You can always make up some story that you intend to start a business at some stage and are just looking at various options. Just prior to your disappearance, you should visit your country of destination again and visit the bank; this time make inquiries about having a credit card. Once you have a valid credit card, you can safely transfer more money into this account. Personally, I would have a trail of at least three accounts in neighboring countries where I could get access to my funds, so that, if one were discovered, I could make use of the others, transferring from one to the other.
It is always handy to be able to jump from one country to another. In Asia, the airline Air Asia flies to just about every country in the region for just a few dollars. For example, a flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia takes less than an hour and costs about $60.
Closing your credit card accounts at home before you disappear will only serve to highlight your intentions. If possible, you should contact your credit card companies and explain that you have a three–year contract overseas and will be away for some time—ask them to mark your account with the relevant information in order to avoid losing your credit rating. This will not be as obvious to anyone trying to locate you other than the government. Or you can simply say nothing and keep your credit card valid and normal until the moment you disappear.
It is possible to legally obtain two passports, both in the United States and Great Britain. The additional passport is generally issued to businessmen or people who frequently travel and need to send one passport to an embassy for visa approval because this can sometimes take weeks, during which time you are required to travel. Having two passports in the same name is a great opportunity to change your name in just one of them. There is always the chance that someone at the passport office will notice you have been issued two passports, but this is unlikely.
Barry Davies
Both my passports are valid and legal. Notice one is issued overseas (FCO).
If you have the means and the time, you can always obtain a second foreign passport from any number of countries simply because you have purchased a home or invested there. The trick here is to buy a home or invest and, once you have your passport, simply sell your investment.
When making a deception plan, you would be well advised to see how the military does it. The military takes actions to deliberately mislead enemy decision makers as to their capabilities, intentions, and operations, thereby causing the adversary to take specific actions (or inactions) that will contribute to the accomplishment of the friendly mission. This is called misinformation.
Misinformation methods designed to misguide and confuse the enemy are crucially important to the success of a government or military intelligence operation. The same process of misinformation can also be used when you plan your disappearance. This might involve deception at home, in your workplace, or within your social networks. But your deception plan must be consistent so everyone will get the same impression of whatever it is you’re deceiving them about.
Disappearing overseas may depend on you taking work that is extremely hard. Becoming a lumberjack can help you disappear but it is one of the worst jobs in the world.
Telling everyone that you intend to go off and join the French Foreign Legion is not really a deception plan, although it could be part of one. The problem is, when you let people know that you intend to do something that is very different from your current lifestyle, you may also be giving an indication that you intend to actually disappear. Your plan should be subtle, secure, and only known to you.
So what constitutes a perfect disappearing plan? The first thing to do is keep everything looking and acting as normal; simply be yourself and tolerate whatever it is that is driving you to disappear and never be found again. In the first instance you must consider why you are doing this and who and what you will leave behind. You will need to make a list of all the points that will result in your successful disappearance.
Once you have finished your plan to disappear, start thinking about removing yourself from the radar; that is to say, slowly and carefully withdrawing any public information about yourself. For example, you might think it a good idea to start deleting any social network accounts such as Facebook or Twitter. However, when you do this, you leave a trail that shows some intent to disappear, i.e., people will wonder, “Why did they delete all their social network accounts?”
If you try to remove your account from Facebook, people will probably ask you why. Plus, it’s not as straightforward as you think; all the comments you have left and photographs you have uploaded could still be attached to other people’s pages. While it’s not always easy to delete your profile from a social network, it is always possible to amend and edit your details. I would suggest you do this if you are having trouble removing it completely.
One of the best ways to drop below the radar is to let people simply forget you. In the case of family and friends, this is a bit difficult, but I know people who have done it. If your plan to disappear by serving in a foreign army, working for an NGO, or as a contract soldier, you might simply stay away from home long enough to be forgotten. If you are married, your wife will have found someone else, your kids will have grown up, and you will be nothing more than a memory. You can achieve the same result by going overseas to work in the construction industry, or as a mechanic in Libya; distance and time are the only two factors that matter.
Barry Davies
Working in the oil business generally means being in an isolated location.
Author’s Note: I live in Spain and there is a young Iranian man who has lived for several years just down the road from me in a small, out of the way cottage. As far as I am aware he has no income, does not work, lives in the house free of charge, has no Spanish NIE, and for all intents and purposes does not exist on any radar. He is always clean and tidy, fairly polite, and keeps to himself—no one bothers him. He holds a British passport, so he is entitled to live in Spain under EU laws. He does not work so he’s not required to pay tax; he is breaking no laws so the police are not chasing him, but he is living well below the radar.
Most of the time, no one really cares about your online footprint; but when you go missing, they will start searching. The moment you log onto the Internet to either check your email or do an online search, you are leaving a lot of footprints. For example, while you are browsing web sites, “cookies” attach themselves to your computer. This allows the website to see how often you return. Search engines keep track of the items you have searched for, and they also keep track of the pages you have opened. In addition, there are lots of viruses, spyware, and adware lurking online, ready to attach themselves to your computer for a whole host of reasons. When you send or receive an email, you actually create a trail that connects you through various ISPs back to the sender or recipient, with your email’s content being saved or even copied en route. Making online purchases requires you to upload your personal and financial details. The list is endless, and if you think your computer is secure, then think again. If you really want more control, beef up your browser security settings so your computer will warn you of uploads, downloads, and other attempted changes more frequently. You can also avoid some Internet footprints using an anonymous browser to hide your computer identity. While the websites you visit can still tell you are on the website, they can’t tell where you’re from.
Get some really good firewall software and browse the Internet in secrecy mode; use the best quality antivirus and antispyware software. If you want more privacy, consider a privacy software package, such as Privacy Guardian or Cyber Scrub, which can clean your memory and erase the footprints of online activity on your computer, such as email records.
Finally, you can mask your email identity by using an anonymous email account. I2P is an Invisible Internet Project software that allows applications to send secure messages and surf the Internet anonymously. Anonymous Internet tools like I2P are popular with those involved in nuisances and sending bulk spam, but these tools are also valuable to those who wish to protect their identity.
Barry Davies
You would be surprised at what a little computer knowledge gets you when you want to see what’s behind an email or website—so much more is revealed.
Email is an essential part of life, and most people now use it instead of posting a letter. You will need to keep your email traffic to a minimum. If you are using email for leisure or business, then you will have a trail of whom you have communicated with and when you’ve done so. Do not stop using this form of communication, but be extremely careful of what you send out and what you attach. Never attach any recent images of yourself or indicate where you may have visited. Simply keep your emails direct and to the point, without any mention that could hint at your pending disappearance.
There will be times when you will need to access the Internet in order to research parts of your plan. You should do this in such a way as to not compromise your intentions or provide any indication that you are preparing to disappear. There are several different ways of doing this, the simplest being to use your planning dongle and an Internet café.
Barry Davies
Make sure your plan to disappear is kept secret—put it all on a removable drive.
Decide how you’re going to disappear and what it will take to make it happen, i.e., do you require a new name and passport, should you tell anyone a deception or keep it secret? Clean up your past history or, at best, limit the amount of information available for others to find. Above all, plan out your disappearance step by step. The better the plan, the more you will see any faults and find a way around them. Finally and most importantly, keep your plan to disappear a secret.
The SAS have a saying, “Make sure your brain is engaged before opening your mouth.” So before you even think about making a plan to disappear, let me say a word about talking to people. The only person you can trust not to say a word to anyone is YOU. You tell one family member or friend in confidence, and soon everyone will know—it’s human nature. Never ever compromise your security. You must learn to be two people: the normal you who keeps talking about the same mundane things, and the other you with the secret plan to disappear. Keep the two completely separate, and never expose yourself to the risk of compromise by keeping your mouth shut.