Part III of this series of privacy articles provides details on how one woman eliminated the possibility of being traced through her bank. Sophisticated, serious stalkers have used banking information obtained fraudulently to track their victims. This is an actual case history. The name "Betty Stanton" is an alternate name used to protect the person who is the subject of this series. Grant Hall has interviewed this individual and portions of the interview are included in quotes herein.

"I had obtained a mailing address out of state to place a distance between my address and where I actually lived. I had not notified the post office or anyone of the new address."

"I closed my bank accounts by mail and the balances were sent to the mail drop. Also, a couple of checks were on their way from my previous employer so a few people knew my new address, but this was many miles from where I actually lived. So, even if an investigator pierced this layer of privacy, he would not be able to find my actual living location-hopefully."

G.H.: "Were you confident the receiver of your mail would not breach your agreement?"

"I had a written agreement with the office manager and owner of the bookkeeping firm that was receiving my mail. Just to be sure, I used two other mail drops set up as decoys before I received it. It was a lot of extra time, effort and cost more, but worth it. My life depended on doing it right."

"When I received my checks-finally, I went to a check cashing store that has branch offices in a number of states. Since the checks were made payable to me, it wasn’t much trouble to cash them. I used my passport for I.D. plus the out of state address and I dealt with the district manager. Now, I had banking secrecy with only the check cashing store’s house bank account number, routing number and bank name as information on the checks, and this was a concern-just in case his investigators convinced someone to give them a copy of the cancelled checks."

"I felt a new sense of self confidence as I walked out of the check cashing store with my money. There were no bank account statements or account numbers tied to me, and no traces to my actual living location. The 2% I paid for the check cashing service was worth every penny. I felt secure and now had money and banking secrecy."

References

Hall, Grant, Privacy Crisis: Identity Theft Prevention Plan and Guide to Anonymous Living, 2006, James Clark King, LLC, www.PrivacyCrisis.com
Copyright: James Clark King, LLC, September 7, 2009