A basic manual on accessing public record information about an individual, with a few methods absent from most books on the subject. Using the pretense of providing information on protecting oneself from conmen and investigating the claims and backgrounds of celebrities and public figures, this books gives information on obtaining county records, DMV information and state tax and corporation records. Includes how to legally obtain a subject’s Social Security number from credit bureaus, and how to find out what the Social Security numbers mean, using the Social Security number “Group Number” chart provided. Also: accessing vital, criminal and military records, bankruptcy records, information on “deadbeat dads” and other obscure sources of information as well as illegal methods of obtaining credit information. The final chapter offers a short rundown on how to sell one's services as an investigator. TC

Publisher: Index
Paperback: 160 pages
Illustrated

“A vast phalanx of minimum-wage earners, keying in data on computers, tracks our every move, silently and relentlessly recording details about our private lives… It is collected, sorted, packaged and sold on a daily basis to others. To any others! Who are these clowns anyway?” Explains in detail how credit bureaus gather information on people, as well as the sale and use of an electronic invention of TRW and Equifax called a “national identifier.“ This program is used by skip tracers, collection agencies, etc., to pull information into a person’s files, such as a new address, and so on. Also explains TECS (the Treasury Enforcement Computer System), which can be used to search both multiple government and private databases, merrily gathering facts on citizens for who knows what reason. GR

Publisher: Index
Paperback: 204 pages
Illustrated

"How to get the two 'breeder cards' that lead to the acquiring of a driver’s license, passport, Medicare card and so on—in other words, all the documents that make you an 'American' in the eyes of the U.S. Government, whether or not the first two are frauds. Tell the difference between real and fake birth certificates and baptismal certificates. How birth certificates are certified and how they and death records are cross-referenced. Learn the difference between state and county certificates, Social Security numbering schemes, aging documents and the Government can spot a fraudulent card." GR

Publisher: Index
Paperback: 160 pages

This is the most up-to-date volume of lore on America’s big problem with bogus documentation, be it altered, forged or falsified. Explains how birth certificates are fraudulently created, how Social Security cards are faked, how driver’s licenses are forged, and how passports are created for nonexistent persons. “Our estimate puts the number of people who are using some sort of altered identity document at well over 10 million!” say the authors. Goes into great detail on several subjects: provides SSN charts that show what all the numbers mean; includes a state-by-state section showing characteristics of each state’s driver’s license; and features a state list of Vital Statistics Bureaus, noting addresses and the prices to obtain birth-, death- and marriage-certificate information. GR

Publisher: Index
Paperback: 160 pages
Illustrated

A subject’s mother’s maiden name is one of the key pieces of information that is needed to gain access to all manner of private records. While a Social Security number and date of birth are relatively easy for an investigator to obtain, trying to find someone’s mother’s maiden name can be like hitting a brick wall. It is something that is left out of most do-it-youself background-investigation books. Here is a solution to the problem, with an emphasis on using a mother’s maiden name to obtain an alternative identity, although this is hardly the only reason for obtaining the maiden name. This guide contains invaluable information to the muckraker, private investigator, con man, phony psychic or the just-plain curious. Details a variety of methods to obtain maiden names such as state records, financial institutions, genealogical histories, newspaper records and the subjects themselves. One interesting chapter contains phone scripts in which one masquerades as various semi-authority figures in order to get the subject to give up Mom’s maiden name. TC

Publisher: Index
Paperback: 107 pages
Illustrated

This book is written with an unabashed enthusiasm for making technological eavesdropping available to us all, despite the latest federal government efforts to legislate it away. Eisenson is a specialist in covering electronic “gray markets” wherein it is legal to make, buy, sell or own the products but illegal to use them. Until 1983, it was perfectly legal to purchase and use scanners that could receive cordless or cellular phone calls or even listen to baby monitors. Now that all this is technically illegal, it seems like the right time to find out what you aren’t allowed to do anymore and just what these Radio Shack “hobbyists” have really been up to. Besides the exquisite pleasures of monitoring your neighbors’ sleaziest private phone moments, the possibility also exists of tuning in Air Force One air-to-ground communication, frequencies for armored truck companies like Brinks and Wells Fargo, and even a specially designed band for evangelical operations where one can listen to the internal organizational machinations of Sun Myung Moon, Jerry Falwell or the Church of Scientology. The writing style of Scanners and Secret Frequencies is far from dry: “For instance, if you hear a rumor about a reactor meltdown, switch to 165.6625 MHz. That frequency is shared between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Airport Security Nationwide, so if the nuclear inspectors start calling ahead to bypass airport security, it’s time for you to hire a Piper Cub and scoot.” According to Eisenson, today’s “hobbyist scanner” is technically superior to scanners built for the NSA “not that many years ago,” and he would be in a position to know. Scanners and Secret Frequencies explains the basic principles of radio transmission, tells which brand of scanner the three-letter agencies are actually ordering, gives step-by-step instructions on how to hotrod specific scanners by brand name and provides instructions on computer-assisted scanning, frequency list sources and other essential info for the budding surveillance freak. SS

Publisher: Index
Paperback: 320 pages