At 05:16 PM 8/21/94 -0500, Jim Hart wrote:

At this point Duncan Frissel will regail us with some wonderful scheme, understandable only to lawyers, that can be used to get credit cards under aliases, perfectly legal if you use a doubly nested corporate structure going through Aruba and the Caymans, and the IRS and FBI don't decide to get to get you on some technicality Duncan failed to mention.

I can't recall any time I've laid out a complicated structure to avoid the privacy invaders. Most of my techniques are simple and depend merely on a willingness to not do the conventional things that other people tell you are necessary if you are to prosper. In fact, hasn't Tim May actually accused me of offering solutions that are too simple and that are not based on careful and exotic Harry Margolis sort of International Tax Planning? The many people who have gotten anonymous Visa and Mastercard credit cards for example have used the simple scheme of applying for a secured credit card in a nome de guerre. Others have opened bank accounts in convenient names that come with Visa debit cards. It is actually easier than it has ever been to obtain credit cards in names other than your own. Signet Bank is promoting it's secured credit card with TV ads.

The surprisingly large number of folks who actually do go to Frissell style lengths is proof that there are plenty of peope who care about privacy.

Gee, I wish you could convince my wife that I "go to great lengths." She always accuses me of taking the easy way out. <G> DCF "How is it that the bulk of the 'Great Unwashed' manage to stand out in the pouring rain and never get wet? Persons of all ages whine these days about how tough and boring things are even though there are more exciting and profitable things going on in the world today than ever before in human history."