Avoiding Debt By Changing Your Identity

Debt is deadly trap. Once it reaches its critical mass, life spins out of control. When faced by an extremely large amount of outstanding debt, people inevitably seek solutions to their problem that they might not consider otherwise.

Even shady practices are not off the table when your financial situation is being destroyed by money owed to banks, credit card companies, private creditors and even people that might not think twice about putting your life in danger.

During such time, some may start to wonder if changing their identity can become the permanent solution they so desperately seek.

Will Changing Your Identity Help Avoid Creditors?

There is no easy answer to that question.

While changing your identity and escaping creditors may seem like a scenario straight out of a Hollywood movie, it may become a possibility depending on the situation. To get to the bottom of this, we would have to consider the different types of situations in which such a need may arise.

You may have taken numerous loans to keep up with your neighbors and only now start to feel reality catching up to you. Maybe the student loans you took in an optimistic economy took a turn for the worst as the world was hit by recession. Perhaps you have been drown in the debt of your ex-spouse or family members, lost all your savings to a financial scheme or feel that you have become a victim of an injustice. Whatever the reason, remember that no cause will justify the following actions in face of the law.

How Would a Person Changing Their Identity Without a Trace?

As it should expected, there are much more known cases of identity fraud being discovered and prosecuted than there are publicly covered successes. The secret of people who have evaded their debt has been keeping low profile for their entire life.

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Even anonymously published accounts are few and far between. However, the ones that can be viewed have proved to be invaluable in producing this article. While this type of behavior is certainly illegal in all countries around the world and is certainly not encouraged, we will describe it as an example.

The following are some of the conditions that need to be present in order to avoid debt by changing your identity.

Name Change

The first step would be to change your name. None of the conventional and freely available means will fit the described situation. When doing so, you would have to avoid informing the electoral office, your bank or any other organization that actively keeps a record or your account or membership in one way or another.

Changing your name through a deed poll, public notice or statutory declaration will always leave traces for your creditors to follow. All of these things have safeguards in place that help the government and law enforcement to prevent their misuse for illegal purposes, and the same safeguards can be used by creditors who have legally obtained court orders.

Simply changing your name is never enough. You would have to leave no trail at all between yourself and your previous identity. In the modern day and age, this can prove impossible considering all the electronic documents that such actions would involve. That’s why this process involves many other steps.

Financial Institutions

Banks force you to update your personal details regarding your account and are especially alert to name changes, even when they occur as a result of a marriage. You would have to close your bank account before you attempt to undergo a change of your identity.

Use caution when building a new credit history. Use a prepaid card if you need to make electronic payments, but try to avoid banks. This is because banks and other financial institutions may run extensive background checks on their new clients. The more serious the service you’re applying for, the more likely the check will be and the further the bank will reach into your past. You can potentially get trouble for applying for new loans, so you may need to avoid them for the rest of your life.

Other Documents

Whenever you attempt to open a bank account and submit a copy of your ID, it’s sent to the main office and several background checks are run on it, including a photo check. A person going about this would have to check the security procedures implemented by each bank beforehand. Note that regulations may be subject to change and could eventually catch you even if you applied the proper caution.

Destroy all of the documents that can connect you to your past identity, including SSC, passport, driving license, ATM cards and checks. Forget about using your old ID online and never access any online accounts you may have opened in your previous name.

Note that today, running photo checks is a much more simple procedure than it was in the past. Even having lots of Facebook pictures uploaded online will jeopardize your chances of ever escaping debt.

 

Moving

You won’t be able to escape if you stay in the same place, since any private detective will soon locate you if you stay in the same town, city, state or even country.

Apply for the citizenship in the country where you chose to reside. In the UK, the Certificate of Naturalization can be filed after a period of six years. Three years of marriage both in will grant you the same rights both in the UK and the US.

Employment

You will need a job or a stable income source, but it will be difficult to secure well-paid employment without an SSN. You may consider planning it in advance, but take care not to let anyone else on the connection between your old and new identity. The past will have to stay in the past for this reckless scheme to succeed.

Start your own business. Try to make as many payments and transactions in cash as you can. Running your operations online can become even more effective in preventing being discovered by your creditors. Use online payment processors and take care to read their terms of service not to raise any red flags that may require the management to alert the authorities to your case.

Is This The Right Choice?

More often than not, changing your identity to escape debt is most certainly not the right decision to make. When standing on the crossroads, many people decide that running is not the answer.

Even several high-profile witnesses for criminal prosecution trials have denied their inclusion in the government-run witness protection program. If people in the face of deadly danger do not wish to leave their past behind only to have a better shot at safety, everyone who faces debt should consider legally available means of dealing with their situation, such as bankruptcy.

Above all, do not take advice from the Internet. This article is merely a source of interesting information to consider, and by no means a guide for evading debt.