Politics for anonymity-Anonymity is not an absolute

[Left_the_scene]

How in the world is a pre paid phone properly handled not relatively safe?

It is safe. Relatively.

I know of one case where a guy from DC paid cash for a pre-paid a huge Wal*mart in WV. They do track the numbers on the phones when you buy them, of course. It all goes into the store records and telco records. Maybe not WHO you are, but definitely where and when it was purchased.

He was running a heroin delivery service off of it. They nailed him by resorting to looking at the surveillance tapes of the cashier lane during the time when he bought it. From that they snagged video of what he looked like, and from there figured out who he was and nailed him.

Come to think of it, the strip search mcdonlads prank call guy that was in the media last year was almost the exact same story, only he was in Florida and it was prepaid calling cards instead of pre paid phone. Bought 'em at wal*mart with cash, and they nailed him from the store video.


It all comes down to how bad a reason you give someone to find out who you are.

 

[MakeUSqueal]

It is safe. Relatively.

I know of one case where a guy from DC paid cash for a pre-paid a huge Wal*mart in WV. They do track the numbers on the phones when you buy them, of course. It all goes into the store records and telco records. Maybe not WHO you are, but definitely where and when it was purchased.

He was running a heroin delivery service off of it. They nailed him by resorting to looking at the surveillance tapes of the cashier lane during the time when he bought it. From that they snagged video of what he looked like, and from there figured out who he was and nailed him.

Come to think of it, the strip search mcdonlads prank call guy that was in the media last year was almost the exact same story, only he was in Florida and it was prepaid calling cards instead of pre paid phone. Bought 'em at wal*mart with cash, and they nailed him from the store video.


It all comes down to how bad a reason you give someone to find out who you are.

So, besides the drug dealers, and if you're not married, and have no SO, what would be some other reasons why a single hobbyist would want to keep a second, pre-paid phone?

 

[Left_the_scene]

So, besides the drug dealers, and if you're not married, and have no SO, what would be some other reasons why a single hobbyist would want to keep a second, pre-paid phone?

Well, he might be a CIA operative, for instance. Or he may want to use the second phone to stalk Anderson Cooper. Those are just two possibilities of many I can think of.

 

[MakeUSqueal]

Well, he might be a CIA operative, for instance. Or he may want to use the second phone to stalk Anderson Cooper. Those are just two possibilities of many I can think of.

Like I said, you're a funny guy.

 

[Left_the_scene]

Like I said, you're a funny guy.

Anderson didn't think so...

 

[HawkEye65]

I did enjoy desi's response the most! (Sorry UG)

No need to apologize, she has more posts than most of the other members that responded.

 

[HawkEye65]

That's just the problem, franca.

Nothing any of us can say or do will stop other people from acting like morons.

So we each have to make our own decisions about how much we're willing to risk, knowing that the morons can act out at any moment without warning.

JL made a point here that may have been missed. Some will do these things out of anger or spite, but others just have no clue that it is inappropriate unless you tattoo it on their foreheads. In my book, that doubles the chances of it happening, although it may not be an even split between spiteful assholes and morons.

 

[HawkEye65]

...I also enjoyed "Left the scene's" line that "Our piddly little bullshit is just not that interesting in the grand scheme of things"
I totally agree with this and hope others would too! All the threads on how to do this and how to do that …just in my opinion are sometimes… just so-over- the- top and I guess that’s where my thoughts regarding Privacy came from initially! Thanks for reading my thread!

I agree, and that's why the only real precautions I take are to prevent my SO from finding out inadvertently (e.g., keylock cell phone, separate back acct and cc, never use home phone, and when on discreet travel take down the EZ-Pass and use cash for tolls). If anyone really wants to get to me there is little I can do to stop it, so I just have the mind set that if shit happens I will deal with it appropriately (whether LE or blackmail).

 

[SirF]

It is safe. Relatively.

I know of one case where a guy from DC paid cash for a pre-paid a huge Wal*mart in WV. They do track the numbers on the phones when you buy them, of course. It all goes into the store records and telco records. Maybe not WHO you are, but definitely where and when it was purchased.

He was running a heroin delivery service off of it. They nailed him by resorting to looking at the surveillance tapes of the cashier lane during the time when he bought it. From that they snagged video of what he looked like, and from there figured out who he was and nailed him.

Come to think of it, the strip search mcdonlads prank call guy that was in the media last year was almost the exact same story, only he was in Florida and it was prepaid calling cards instead of pre paid phone. Bought 'em at wal*mart with cash, and they nailed him from the store video.


It all comes down to how bad a reason you give someone to find out who you are.

Good points. So may be that guy should have held on to the pre paid phone for a few months until he could be reasonably sure that they no longer have the tapes from that day. I can't imagine that they keep tapes for more than say 1 or three months. But I get your point. When I bought my phone, surely there would have been a video tape made in the store showing my sorry fat ass....

 

[MakeUSqueal]

Anderson didn't think so...

Are you talking about Sammy again?

 

[Thorn]

Just so folks can put this in their pipes to smoke on for a bit, consider this:

If law enforcement wanted to truly work a sting on johns they would not create from scratch an entity to use as a front. They would pop, then turn, a well established provider and use her good name in the business as a front for their sting. As was done in OFC in FLA and several recent CL stings.

So its not that 'someone you never heard of before' provider that might be the one that gets you. Its the well established name that suddenly isn't being used by that provider but by the police, not that you'd know it until it is too late if it is you that happens to wind up in the cross hairs.

That's just how it goes.

 

[Left_the_scene]

Damn straight. I dunno HOW many times I have seen LE do this with drug dealers. Makes sense they'd do it with providers as well.

Hell, they may not even bust the provider. They can just bug her room and bust the johns as they come out. (seen them do that with dealers - LE wanted multiple customers busted so they could make multiple people "roll" on him - dealer had no idea what was going on until about 15 of his customers were busted, then they busted him...)

Luckily prostitution is often low priority...

Just so folks can put this in their pipes to smoke on for a bit, consider this:

If law enforcement wanted to truly work a sting on johns they would not create from scratch an entity to use as a front. They would pop, then turn, a well established provider and use her good name in the business as a front for their sting. As was done in OFC in FLA and several recent CL stings.

So its not that 'someone you never heard of before' provider that might be the one that gets you. Its the well established name that suddenly isn't being used by that provider but by the police, not that you'd know it until it is too late if it is you that happens to wind up in the cross hairs.

That's just how it goes.

 

[Maleagant]

I agree, and that's why the only real precautions I take are to prevent my SO from finding out inadvertently (e.g., keylock cell phone, separate back acct and cc, never use home phone, and when on discreet travel take down the EZ-Pass and use cash for tolls). If anyone really wants to get to me there is little I can do to stop it, so I just have the mind set that if shit happens I will deal with it appropriately (whether LE or blackmail).

How did you go about obtaining a separate bank account and credit card without your SO finding out? This stuff would show up on your credit report, unless you were able to get them under an alias, which would be difficult to do.

Maybe I am just being paranoid, but I feel like my SO would totally find out if I had separate accounts. I just use cash, money orders, and my prepaid phone to be safe.

 

[SirF]

I agree. Having sais that. I have a thousand fucking cards on my credit report, it would n't make much of a difference. But hobby=cash. Just ask Elliott.

 

[Left_the_scene]

I agree. Having sais that. I have a thousand fucking cards on my credit report, it would n't make much of a difference. But hobby=cash. Just ask Elliott.

Last time I asked Eliot for advice on anything he suggested an agency that charged me thousands up front, (before the girl even showed up!) for a 30 something yr old with a 4-5 face that was completely non-gfe and wanted everything covered.

Fuck that.

 

[HawkEye65]

How did you go about obtaining a separate bank account and credit card without your SO finding out? This stuff would show up on your credit report, unless you were able to get them under an alias, which would be difficult to do.

Maybe I am just being paranoid, but I feel like my SO would totally find out if I had separate accounts. I just use cash, money orders, and my prepaid phone to be safe.

Never gave them up when we got married. She has her own account and card as well, so maybe she's hobbying behind my back too! The important thing was to switch all my personal bank/cc statements to electronic only, online payments, etc. Everything is virtual, and I use the same level of security at home as at work (complex PW, etc). When she asks why I use PW at home, I say to keep the kids from messing things up on my PC (yes, my PC is mine, hers is hers), and even put a PW on her PC for her account for the same reason (kids). And within my PC, I have different PW protection for the various bank and cc accounts.

If I'm ever in a car accident and have to give her access to my accounts while in the hospital I'm screwed. I just have to stay healthy and outlive her!

 

[SirF]

Never gave them up when we got married. She has her own account and card as well, so maybe she's hobbying behind my back too! The important thing was to switch all my personal bank/cc statements to electronic only, online payments, etc. Everything is virtual, and I use the same level of security at home as at work (complex PW, etc). When she asks why I use PW at home, I say to keep the kids from messing things up on my PC (yes, my PC is mine, hers is hers), and even put a PW on her PC for her account for the same reason (kids). And within my PC, I have different PW protection for the various bank and cc accounts.

If I'm ever in a car accident and have to give her access to my accounts while in the hospital I'm screwed. I just have to stay healthy and outlive her!

I use different levels of passwords. E.g. one password to get into the laptop for emergencies, another password to mount a TrueCrypt drive, another to use my hobby email account etc.

 

[HawkEye65]

I use different levels of passwords. E.g. one password to get into the laptop for emergencies, another password to mount a TrueCrypt drive, another to use my hobby email account etc.

Oh, I definitely use different passwords for different things, except some BS stuff like Netflix. What I'm saying is if I had to turn a group of PWs over to the wife (like my personal cc or bank acct) she would see the activity. If I was laid up in the hospital for a while after a car accident, and didn't make my cc payments, they would eventually send snail mail to the home residence (probably a big hole in my minimal security measures is not having a PO Box for this eventuality).