Hide Your Assets and Disappear: A Step-by-Step Guide to Vanishing Without a Trace

Yes book has typos, not a handicap, but reflects hard, useful and extensive street smarts experience of government and procedures as well as detective, police and government inspector experience, extensive. Valuable and easy read for big picture and perspective, even for honest big picture people, and even though vernacular falls a bit to low-brow American in places. Still, at least five stars out of seven and VERY worthwhile reading for people who want to reduce costs and dangers here or abroad and know what the rules are and what foreign places are like. Doubt it will help real criminals much though, unless they are very smart and read much, much more. Guide mostly for legally protecting assets and staying out of trouble, plus maximizing privacy in the huge computer databases age. Covers databases few even know about, financial and travel tracking and is amazing revelation in those areas and overall. Does reveal how DIFFICULT it would be to 'disappear' -- bordering on impossible except for the VERY smart who are diligent and can cope with the consequences revealed in various ways. Experienced perspective!

It's a decent book and there are a few nuggets of wisdom worth consideration, but it's my fault for not looking at the date. It was written in 1999 and doesn't reflect, at all, the modern, surveillance society that we live in post 9/11. Also, reading the book (I'm half way through it), I've yet to find the so-called "step by step guide" part. It's more of a list of a book of considerations, not a step by step guide per se. And I didn't care for the fact that 15 pages were wasted explaining why one might want to disappear. Did the author think that someone who was interested in doing that might need some politically correct justification for doing so? "Get to it!" is how I felt when reading the first 15 pages.

This book was a pleasant read, despite one initial example of a sexual encounter to make the case for trying to run and hide what you have from a corrupt judge and your ex-wife. Could have done without that. But the author's other stories were clean and entertaining. The reader should remember though, that they were necessarily obtained from people who got CAUGHT! Further, it is dated. In the time since publication, many laws have changed, making the information irrelevant. Instead of plotting your emigration from the U.S. under questionable circumstances, the book can still be useful for learning about international living as an expatriate, or just vacationer.

Pankau is the master of this subject. However, times have changed so much since publication it renders half of the book useless. Don't get me wrong, it's still a must have for anyone who is looking to protect themselves from identity thefts, or the modern crime novelist looking for reference into this world. Fun book.

The book arrived on time and in good shape. The book was cheap and what I expected. The last three words.

Out of date but very interesting.

Bummer!

Most of this isn't relevant any longer. Some of the countries referenced don't even exist anymore and most of the legal advise is too dated as a result of 9-11.

Good information for people in countries with unreasonable tax rates.