Romance Scams - Blackmail - Online Privacy

Sometime  in the mid-eighties while working for an investigative agency, I  discovered I had a unique ability to pretext and social engineer; which  is lying to extract private information. Eventually, I left my job and  opened a skip tracing (finding people) service in some anonymous office  in mid-town Manhattan. I spent my days pulling phone records, bank  records, travel records, and any other document or file a client needed.  My philosophy was, if you can afford it, I can obtain it.

The  tools of social engineering made me a deadly skip tracer (finds  people). Investigators, lawyers, insurance companies, tabloids, and  others hired me to locate people worldwide. Again my philosophy was if  you can afford it, I can find them. 

Somewhere  in early 2000, I wrote an article, How to Disappear for an offshore  website and it blew up. The next thing you know, I am the Dear Abby of  disappearing. People from all parts of the world began contacting me  about their privacy issues and need to vanish. I then authored a book,  How to Disappear; which was published and became a New York Times  Bestseller.

Somewhere  along my road, I found myself in the romance scam and blackmail  business. The romance scam involves identifying if a person is dating an  online fraud or helping to recover stolen funds. The blackmail work is  about getting the victim out of their precarious situation and creating  disinformation to combat photo or video exposure.

Oddly,  these professions all involve the use of deception. One could say is I  use the negative, to battle the negative to obtain a positive outcome.  If I can  be of help, do not hesitate to ask. 

Frank M. Ahearn

FA@FrankAhearn.com