When a PI is hired (usually by a law firm) to locate your bank account, he will start by running a database search to get a history of your addresses. He will also check civil records filings in the county court houses where those addresses are located because they may reveal the name of your bank.
If he fails to find your bank account near your current residence, he will then search banks and court records near your former addresses and expand from there in concentric circles. Because it is a time consuming and expensive effort, he will probably stop searching after the first bank account is found. (Most PI's charge a separate fee for each bank account located.)
Another possibility is that the PI will hire a confederate to pick up your garbage. (Yes, some people still just tear up bank statements rather than shred them!) He may also pull up your credit report, which can be a trove of banking information.There are many more ways that an unusually smart (or crooked) PI can track down your bank account.
To reduce the chances that your account will be found, close your present account. Then open a new one in a state far from where you live, and bank by mail. Do not use a credit card tied in to that account. Then, if you wish to keep extra savings in a secure location, open a second secret bank account in Canada. Bulletproof security!
More information, along with step-by-step instructions about how to open hidden bank accounts in both the U.S. and Canada, is contained in
Invisible Money.
Labels: hidden bank account, invisible money, keep your assets, secret bank account, shred bank statements. tracking a bank account
Privacy blog post by JJ Luna at 12:03 AM
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I want to be invisible … I paint my
face and travel at night.
—Ralph Reed
In theory,
How to Be Invisible covers all the bases but in practice, sometimes a consultant who specializes in personal privacy is required. Here are the reasons why a retired detective and a wealthy widow recently flew to Las Vegas for private consultations with me. (Names have been changed.)
Jim Williams, 65, a retired Seattle police detective:
Jim was divorced, no children, and had no close relatives. His problem was that he could foresee that a vindictive investor named Max was going to file an unjust—if not frivolous— lawsuit against him. Once filed, Jim could be tied down for months or years and end up with horrendous legal costs. The alternative?
“I’d like to just
disappear without a trace,” he said. “I’ve got my eye on an offshore blue-water sailboat and I’d like to cruise up to Alaska in the summer and down to Mexico in the winter. The problem is how to title the boat so my name does not appear, and how to get my monthly pension checks and cash them without leaving a clue as to what port I’m in.”
Helen Holmes, 57, a wealthy widow from Arkansas:
Helen nearly died in a major car accident several years ago. “When I recovered,” she said, “I felt like a different person and I wanted to start life over. I’m going to sell off all my land holdings and just disappear, but I need some help.” She planned to travel for several years and then settle down some place “far, far away from Arkansas.” Her two requirements were (1)
where to securely hide a large sum of money when her properties were sold, and (2) how to obtain and use a
bank account that could normally
not be traced back to her.
Both Jim and Helen left Las Vegas with their problems solved. So who needs a personal privacy consultant? Anyone who wants to make sure that when they disappear, they
really disappear!
Labels: anonymous ownership, hidden bank account, how to disappear, internet privacy, personal privacy consultant, privacy consultant, privacy consultation, privacy consulting
Privacy blog post by JJ Luna at 12:01 AM
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