Vanish
November 20, 2009 11:15 PM Subscribe
Vanish. Writer Evan Ratliff finds out how easy (or hard) it is to disappear with a $5000 bounty on his head.
This post was deleted for the following reason: sort of previously. -- jessamyn
At CarMax, a used-auto outlet, I then sell my Civic for $3,000.
A 1999 Honda Civic gets $3000 at a car yard? Seems high.
posted by mattoxic at 12:28 AM on November 21, 2009
A 1999 Honda Civic gets $3000 at a car yard? Seems high.
posted by mattoxic at 12:28 AM on November 21, 2009
So the reason they caught this guy is because he was broadcasting everything he was doing on Facebook and Twitter? I would hardly call that "disappearing". Sure, he used a fake name...so?
Maybe I can't possibly understand this because I don't use Facebook or Twitter. Maybe Evan Ratliff is a genius and I'm a moron. But I almost feel like the idea of just not continually posting all the details of his life on the internet simply didn't occur to him, like Facebook was more necessary to him than food and water. I mean, to "disappear" I would: 1) move somewhere very rural, 2) pay cash, 3) chill the fuck out.
posted by creasy boy at 12:59 AM on November 21, 2009
Maybe I can't possibly understand this because I don't use Facebook or Twitter. Maybe Evan Ratliff is a genius and I'm a moron. But I almost feel like the idea of just not continually posting all the details of his life on the internet simply didn't occur to him, like Facebook was more necessary to him than food and water. I mean, to "disappear" I would: 1) move somewhere very rural, 2) pay cash, 3) chill the fuck out.
posted by creasy boy at 12:59 AM on November 21, 2009
Yeah, the electronic trail was pretty dumb. But it wouldn't have been much of a story if he wasn't caught.
posted by zompist at 1:10 AM on November 21, 2009
posted by zompist at 1:10 AM on November 21, 2009
I also figured that I could freely visit Facebook pages like Vanish Team. Anyone who built an application to use on a corporate site, I assumed, would need cooperation from the company to track their users.
A Wired writer assumed that Facebook is defending his privacy? Jesus, this guy hasn't been on the lam, he's been in a bunker for the last 5 years.
posted by benzenedream at 1:22 AM on November 21, 2009 [2 favorites]
A Wired writer assumed that Facebook is defending his privacy? Jesus, this guy hasn't been on the lam, he's been in a bunker for the last 5 years.
posted by benzenedream at 1:22 AM on November 21, 2009 [2 favorites]
Yes, at first I too thought it was stupid that he lived so much of his life on the lam online. But near the beginning somewhere he explains that his purpose wasn't to attempt to vanish, it was to vanish and reemerge living openly as someone else. If he had just gone to a shack somewhere in Montana and grew a vegetable garden then I doubt he'd have been found, but that wasn't what he was attempting. I guess the takeaway is that when you reinvent yourself, in addition to changing your appearance, you'd better alter your personality so that you can be one of those people who doesn't interact much online.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:02 AM on November 21, 2009
posted by Rhomboid at 2:02 AM on November 21, 2009
But near the beginning somewhere he explains that his purpose wasn't to attempt to vanish, it was to vanish and reemerge living openly as someone else.
And yet I live openly as a real person with a real job and a real life...and manage not to twitter everything I'm doing out into the etherspace. I interact plenty online, I write emails to friends and I use metafilter, and my real name's in my profile, but I don't come into here everyday like "Hey guys, I shaved my head!", "Hey guys I went to a ballgame today" etc.
posted by creasy boy at 2:32 AM on November 21, 2009
And yet I live openly as a real person with a real job and a real life...and manage not to twitter everything I'm doing out into the etherspace. I interact plenty online, I write emails to friends and I use metafilter, and my real name's in my profile, but I don't come into here everyday like "Hey guys, I shaved my head!", "Hey guys I went to a ballgame today" etc.
posted by creasy boy at 2:32 AM on November 21, 2009
Yeah, this wasn't really an attempt to "vanish" it was an attempt to create an alternate reality game centered on himself. If he had actually wanted to vanish, it would have been pretty easy.
posted by delmoi at 3:26 AM on November 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by delmoi at 3:26 AM on November 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
Right on the top of things not to do while on the lam: don't install software you got on the internet written by people looking for you. Don't then use the software to talk to those people to ask how it's going.
He's involved with Wired. He should know better. He obviously wanted to get caught.
posted by cotterpin at 4:00 AM on November 21, 2009
He's involved with Wired. He should know better. He obviously wanted to get caught.
posted by cotterpin at 4:00 AM on November 21, 2009
I don't get out of bed for $5000.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:06 AM on November 21, 2009
posted by Smedleyman at 4:06 AM on November 21, 2009
Note how he got "careless" near the very end of the period, just in time to make the story a better one.
posted by atrazine at 4:08 AM on November 21, 2009
posted by atrazine at 4:08 AM on November 21, 2009
But it wouldn't have been much of a story if he wasn't caught.
It wasn't much of a story anyway.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:00 AM on November 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
It wasn't much of a story anyway.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:00 AM on November 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
Dude suffered from a severe case of hubris...Broadcasting his movements via Facebook and Twitter, and using Jay Gatsby's name. Save for the name, he was ahead of the game before he decided to be curious about how things were proceeding, as well as the "for posterity" documentation.
I note, too, that he did not attempt to leave the US. If you truly want to disappear from the US grid, you need to find an anonymous way across the border and to stay wherever you end-up.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:35 AM on November 21, 2009
I note, too, that he did not attempt to leave the US. If you truly want to disappear from the US grid, you need to find an anonymous way across the border and to stay wherever you end-up.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:35 AM on November 21, 2009
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