And if you follow JJL's advice in his book concerning your cell phone, I find it hard to believe anyone could spoof the police into breaking down your door using "swatting".

In response to Post #7880:
"Ever heard of swatting? It takes caller ID spoofing to a whole new level. It's a new trend and it's the perfect reason to keep you home number and address only among those whom you trust with your life."

ANY transaction involving more than 10K in cash that's a "business or trade" transaction requires the filing of a Form 8300 with the IRS. It's a money-laundering (yeah, right...) law.

By the way, the new health care bill includes a provision requiring a Form 1099 be sent to the IRS (and the person who was involved) for ANY BUSINESS TRANSACTION involving more than $600.

Submitted Link #1: http://www.unclefed.com/IRS-Forms/2009/p1544.pdf...

... Your problem is that you went to a dealer.

The solution? Deal only with a private party.

Great, unless you want to buy a new car, in which case, use a nominee (appointed LLC agent, call him/her "transportation manager") for the transaction, let them provide the SSN and pay cash, then "fire" them and get a notarized letter of "completed participation" from them stripping them of "authority" to transact business for the LLC.

You can even hire a lawyer to perform the transaction, pay him cash, and give HIM a pseudonym and a ghost address. As a lawyer, he's duty-bound to keep your confidence.

Your name never enters the system.

Oh, and when somebody says "it's the law" ALWAYS demand that the cite the law, chapter and verse, and/or show you a copy of the law. I've found that the vast majority of the time when someone invokes this "it's the law" stuff, it's an outright lie. Although, in this case, it's quite possible it's not, given the number of regulations on large cash transactions that are in place to prevent drug-money laundering. Still, I always like to know exactly what the law actually says when someone invokes it.

This is what I have experienced as the administrator in NC for their estates where they both resided. This is in no way legal advice.

After a death bank accounts freeze as well as CD’s, safe deposit boxes etc.

Laws vary from state to state. To settle an estate in NC someone will need to be appointed administrator. This can be done in several ways. Named in a will or named by court. It could be that you are the next of kin or another sibling would like to handle the estate. The court will most likely appoint whoever you agree to. We had this done right in the Estate Division office at the County Court house.

The administrator will have official duties as long as the estate is open. These duties will be to pay just bills. collect money owed, close accounts, pay taxes, fulfill the will if there is one etc.

Most business dealings with the estate require a letter of testamentary (states that you are the administrator of the estate) as well as official death certificate. An EIN number will also be required for the filing of a final tax return.

I know JJL does not speak well of trusts and this is not the place to discuss such information at length due to the amount of information and complexity. Perhaps he can shed a little light on this if I’m going about my privacy after death for my kids the wrong way.

What I think I know Readers digest version:

A will is a public document on file. It can be recorded before death or after death. A living trust does not become public information before or after death. A living trust must be funded with the assets (deeds and titles named to the living trust) and there should be a pour over will for things that are not funded to the living trust. A trustee you have named while you are living in the living trust handles the affairs of the trust after your death, without the living trust being public information.

A tax return will still need to be filed and the affairs of the estate will need to be completed but most dealings will be done in private.

You may have problems if this person passed away and owned anything or ever filed a tax return without a death certificate.

Submitted Link #1: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2573/can-...

... What? "JJL does not speak well of trusts?" Not so regarding a living trust, to avoid probate when you die. Highly recommended!

My grandmother passed at the age of 90 after a long-term illness in my parents' home. My mother was chided by the coroner for "dressing" her body before calling the coroner, but those were my grandmother's specific stated wishes, and nothing ever came of it. At an advanced age, it would be rare for somebody to raise issues.

The second incident involved a 4-year-old child who was about to die from a childhood form of cancer. We knew he was about to pass but our hearts could not handle the news. Regardless, my husband knew we had to prepare. We lived across the street from a funeral home, and he went there and made preparations. The funeral director obtained a written statement (on a prescription pad, I think) from our pediatrician, that the child had a terminal cancer. When the time came, my husband carried his body across the street to the funeral home. About 200+ people attended the funeral, but there was never an inquest. The death certificate was filed properly and everything was done according to protocol. I found out several years later that we had missed a few steps in the procedures, but nothing ever came of it. It was a well-documented tragedy because of our attempts to save him through modern medicine at a well-known children's hospital for 13 months prior, but our personal sense of privacy was never violated.

Three weeks later, my father died of another rare cancer which had been under treatment for 2 years prior. My mother and eldest brother handled the arrangements and I was very much in a fog from grieving over my son. There was definitely an ambulance or hearse involved because my father was 6'2" and about 160-170 pounds when he passed. But there was never an inquest. The same funeral home handled the arrangements.

Nine years later, my mother had a brief illness with cancer (did I mention that nobody in my family appears to have problems with heart disease?). Shortly before she passed, when we knew her time was short, we made arrangements with a (different) funeral home. When it happened, we called the funeral home. Yes, they came into our home at 5 a.m., but no, we never felt our privacy was violated.

Regardless of your particular state laws and your local ordinances, if you know a loved one is near that time, you need to make personal arrangements with his or her family physician and a local funeral home. Local funeral homes are very sensitive to issues of privacy, and they will work with you when necessary.

My condolences and deepest sympathies to you in your time of pre-grieving. Time and circumstance happen to all, and approaching these issues calmly tends to lead to resolutions that you can "live" with.

When my mother passed away at home, after a short illness, the coroner was called and he came to the house to certify the death and to collect all prescription pain medications she'd been given. Because it was a known illness with plenty of medical records and the involvement of a hospice organization, it was painless and brief, and no general search was performed.

This might NOT be the case for an unattended death, particularly a suicide, and the police WILL likely investigate, so yes, having someone die in your house will lead to a certain loss of privacy, including having to identify yourself to the police.

That's a reasonable intrusion into your privacy in the interests of ensuring that nothing nefarious happened to the victim(s) and no crime has been committed.

Say an elderly family member is living in my house when we discover them passed away in their sleep -- nothing suspicious. In the old days you'd say a prayer, dig a hole under the oak tree, and mourn. I doubt that would fly today. Am I obligated to have the police "investigating" all throughout my house, or can I load the body into the back of the car and drive it to a coroner? Seems like all efforts for privacy could go out the window in the event of a natural death in the family. Comments?

...
I asked my attorney about this. His reply:

Jennifer's mother died in her sleep at her sister's house. I think the sister called 911. The coroner came and looked at the situation and determined no foul play. Body was removed by the mortuary service. My friend that I met up with in Cape Cod had his father keel over on Christmas eve right into his dessert. Paramedics removed the body and he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

So, it seems to me, "nothing suspicious = no investigation."

In any case, try Googling "when someone dies at home." I have not independently verified this information. However, it seems clear to me that for privacy reasons, if you have an elderly sick person at home, make sure there is a "hospice nurse" providing care. See 2nd link below.

http://www.peterjjackson.com/whathapp.htm (call the person's doctor first, then the funeral home)

http://www.eldercareteam.com/public/757.cfm (if under hospice care, call hospice nurse, otherwise call 911)

Personally, I think that houses are made unsafe to being with and do not consider security to begin with. For instance, why have a front, back or side door? Where the front door is, fill that area with a wall and six feet of steel and concrete. Then put a nice front door drilled into the concrete and steel. Same for the back door.

Entry into the house would be located in the garage via a hidden door.

Wanna kick the door down? Have at it boys!!! There is a shade tree if you need to take a nap and I can make some lemonade if you get thirsty!! (laughing)

... You try this first, Chris, and keep track of the cost. [Don't forget to bulletproof all the windows.] Then let us all know how it works out (such as when repairmen have to come in.)

First, any Fugitive Task Force is necessarily operating pursuant to an arrest warrant, because the person is a fugitive, so it's probably safe to assume they do have a warrant for the individual in question.

Here's some info directly from the US Marshal's Service on service of federal fugitive warrants on procedure: "H. Entry into a Private Dwelling 1. When the investigation develops information that the fugitive is located in a specific private premises, entry into the premises may be accomplished in any of the following ways: a. With voluntary consent of the person in possession or control of the premises. b. By subterfuge, ruse, or deception, if the Deputy already has: (1) consent, and/or (2) a warrant, and/or (3) probable cause to make legal entry. c. Without an arrest warrant if the deputy has probable cause to make the arrest and "exigent circumstances" exist. d. With an arrest warrant, if the residence is that of the fugitive and the deputy has reasonable belief that the subject is inside, forced entry may be used. (See Payton v New York, 445 U.S. 573,603) If there is an independent showing that the subject of an arrest warrant is located within a third party residence, absent exigent circumstances, a search warrant should be obtained before gaining entry. (See Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204 (1981)). If the subject fugitive is in the residence of a crime partner and it is believed that evidence of the crime is also present, a search warrant should be obtained before gaining entry. Evidence of third party crime may be seized if it is in plain view from a position where the DUSM has a lawful right to be."

That being said, it's quite common for people not to ask for a warrant when faced with a bunch of men sticking machine guns in your face. Nor are the police required to stop and have a chat with you about the warrant they have before entering and securing the premises and/or the suspect. If it's a no-knock warrant, they can bust down the door without warning, and it's commonplace for warrants for violent felons to be no-knock. If it's a simple arrest warrant, then they have to knock on the door and announce their identity and purpose, and wait a "reasonable amount of time" for the door to be answered. That amount of time is not fixed, and they can then make forcible entry if nobody opens up.

It must also be remembered that TV reality shows don't show everything and may have edited out any boring discussions about warrants, and in most cases, people who harbor fugitives know full well they are harboring fugitives and don't want to argue with the police, lest they get arrested for doing so.

The best defense against a warrantless entry, or even an entry pursuant to a valid warrant, (assuming it's not a bogus home invasion using the guise of a police raid, which is far too common) is to not resist, keep your mouth absolutely shut, and then file charges in court if they've come to the wrong house.

The danger, and it's a serious one, is that when the police raid the wrong house, people get killed, most often residents, who are legitimately defending themselves against a perceived armed home invasion. This happens with alarming frequency, and since 2007 alone, 43 innocent people have been killed by police in botched paramilitary raids. The web link will take you to the Cato Institute's interactive map on the subject.

This is a real problem for innocent armed citizens...like me. Because I know I'm innocent, I presume automatically that anyone trying to violently break into my home is a criminal intent on harming me, and I'm going to shoot first and ask questions later, which means I may likely get killed by a police SWAT team that's screwed up a warrant service.

The only way I can think of to avoid this is to BE INVISIBLE, and live as low-key and peaceable a life as possible. On the other hand, as a former cop living in a small town, I've also taken some time to try to get to know the local police on a casual basis by chatting with them when they are on patrol, so hopefully, if a raid is planned, they will recognize my house and question whether the warrant address is correct before they come busting in. Other than that, it's up to each individual whether to resist a violent break-in or not.

Then again, I've also strongly reinforced all my exterior doors (they are all steel, not wood) AND the door to my bedroom (which is also a steel fire-rated door) by installing reinforced deadbolts, heavy-duty hinges, and other improvements that make it very difficult to break down the doors.

I sleep with the bedroom door locked as an additional method of slowing down a violent entry (or simply stealth entry), which gives me additional time to wake up, arm myself and determine who is making entry. Hopefully if it's the police, I can sort things out before shots are fired. That's the best I can do in that regard.

Bottom line, for me, is that the likelihood that I will be inadvertently raided by the police is very small, while the chance that criminals posing as the police might break in is not high, but substantially higher, so I'm going to defend myself if it happens.

Submitted Link #1: http://www.cato.org/raidmap/...

Is it wise to keep a ghost address out of too many databases?

... Yes to both questions.

It has happened to me before as well. Even if you submit your DL to them, they will still (most likely) ask for a bill to prove your address. My recommendation:

(1) Try another Bank. I'm not a fan of sending bills to anyone, let alone a bank, since it is none of their business. You are giving up privacy this way. Not what you want. (2) Give the utility or phone company your ghost address--have your bills sent to the ghost address. You can then forward this to the Bank. But you are losing some privacy in this manner.

Best of luck!

My thought is that if there is any residual traces of my browsing it would only be on my flash drive and not on the computer I'm using.

Am I right on this , or should I be more careful?