##################################### # # # Riff Raff # # Presents: # # THE INFORMATION AGE # # or # # An Introduction to Gathering # # Facts About People # # # ##################################### Revision 1.0 Updated: 12/15/85 Preface: In today's "Information Age," knowledge is power: data is gold. Never forget the Golden Rule: "The man with the gold is making the rules." In this article, I will discuss simple methods for obtaining information about people. I will leave it to your vivid imagination to think of uses for the information you can obtain. The Telephone Company: ---------------------- I won't insult your intelligence by discussing published numbers. Non-listed numbers are not listed in the telephone directory, but can be obtained through directory assistance. If a number is non-published, the DA op will tell you. This will at least show that the person in question does exist in the given town. Your next step is to go to your library and search through the Criss-Cross directory. In this you can use the person's name to find his street address and sometimes even his phone number as some information in this book is gotten through a census. Also in this book is a list of published phone numbers and their owners, and the owner's street address, number of people residing at that address, and if the owner is a business or residence. If you are trying to find information about a person out of state through this method, try calling a public library in a major city near the person. Most librarians are usually very helpful. CNA: If you have a phone number and want an owner, try the Criss-Cross directory first. This minimizes the chance that the phone company will get tired of hearing 13 year olds calling their CN/A operators. Of course, if the number is non-pub, you will have to resort to using this service. See BIOC Agent 003's Basic Telecommunications series for details on use of CN/A. COSMOS: Yes, this too should be off limits to 13 year olds. I have seen more COSMOS go down because of some smart-ass GUMP than I care to discuss. I will direct you to Lex Luthor's article on Hacking COSMOS for further information on this subject. Post Office: ------------ The zip code of the address of your victim can be obtained by calling the post office of any major city. Besides for faster (bullshit) mail services, the zip code is also used by several mail order houses and by credit bureaus for keeping track of people, so it is important. Another source of zip codes in your state is the phone book. Police Departments: ------------------- Don't waste your time. They will want know more about YOU than you will ever want to know about the person you are checking out. Besides, I have not found a police department that will be the least bit cooperative in gathering information for you (even in legitimate cases). Department of Motor Vehicles: ----------------------------- These people are the greatest! Visit or call your local DMV to request a form for Registration information to trace a license plate. In my state, the report is only $0.75 as of this writing. You get the specs about the vehicle, and name, address, and age of the owner. Driver License File information and Accident History can also be obtained by providing basic information and the nominal fee. With driver license info, you should receive the license number. This can be used to create the victim's license with your picture on it at any good ID dealership found in any major city. * One note: pay by money order! It takes a month to clear a personal check. Credit Bureaus: --------------- The ever-popular TRW and CBI credit checking services are great sources of information about the person's financial history and their current charge accounts. All you need is the person's name, full street address, city, state, and zip code (and, of course, a PW). Also included in the output is the person's (drum roll, please) social security number. This little number follows the person everywhere he goes (and so can you!). Government agencies, banks, colleges, and many other non-governmental agencies (for example, the Red Cross) use it. Read on for more information about its misuse (heh heh). Social Security Administration: ------------------------------- You should always make sure that the person's earnings records (and previous employment record) are in order. Stop by your local SSA office and pick up a copy of form: SSA-7004-PC. Have the records sent to your favorite PO box lest anyone get suspicious. Universities, Schools, etc. --------------------------- If you know where your victim has graduated from, you can write the school, representing yourself as the victim, and request that a copy of your records be forwarded to your present employer @ your favorite P.O. box. The transcript should include parent's address (at the time of graduation) and high school he graduated from. This should give you a clue about where to look for earlier records on the person. Keep in mind that the Federal privacy law of 1974 restricts access to academic transcripts to requests by the student himself. Also, schools can differ in the procedures for forwarding transcripts. It may or may not be necessary to forge the persons signature. I suggest that you check with each individual school to find out about the procedure. More Places to Look: -------------------- While the previously mentioned methods are tried and true, the following ones have not yet been fully tested by yours truly as of this date. They consist of several good suggestions by friends, ideas that just happen to hit me during Calculus class, and info taken from various books. These are included for the person who wishes to gather esoteric information their friends and enemies. Passports: ---------- Information concerning passports can be obtained by writing to the following address: Passport Office Department of State Washington, DC 20520 You generally need to supply the name of the person, the place where the passport was obtained, and the approximate date on which the passport was issued. Military Service: ----------------- National Personnel Records Center General Service Administration 9700 Page Boulevard St. Louis, Missouri 63132 Use Standard Form 180, Request Pertaining to Military Personnel Records, to request service records. The information is generally restricted to servicemen and their immediate families. If the veteran is living, his signature is normally required. Civil Service: -------------- Requests for non-military government employee's records are under similar restrictions as those for military service records. The requests should include the employee's full name, address of the agency he worked for, and approxmate dates of employment. The address to send your inquiries to is: Civilian Personnel Records General Service Administration 111 Winnebago Street St. Louis, Missouri 63118 County Courthouse: ------------------ There's a lot of info here if you're able to visit the courthouse in the town where your victim has lived. If you can't visit the place, write to the registrar with as few brief, specific questions as possible. Now the specs: Marriage, Birth, Death Records: Visit the courthouse and tell the registrar that you are researching your family's geneaology. Ask if you can look up some marriage records. He will not normally do the research for you, but he should let you look through the records The info you will find will include the groom's name, the bride's name (maiden) and the date of the marriage (accurate to +/- 7 days). In this office, you should also be able to get copies of wills and probate records to research the person's family general financial history. Churches: --------- If you know a church that the person attended, you can also look up marriage, baptismal, confirmation, and death records. The quality and consistency of these records can vary greatly depending on the individual church. Hospitals: ---------- Hospitals will have records of births, deaths, and other medical info. You'd have to represent yourself as a family member to obtain personal medical info, but it can't hurt to try. For Further Reading: -------------------- Government publication: "Where to Write for Vital Records: Births, Deaths, Marriages, Divorces" Books: Genealogy books can have additional suggestions for research. Magazines: "Soldier of Fortune" has ads for books about gathering information. ------------------------------------- If you have any questions, comments, corrections, insults, fan mail, hate mail, or just want to say "hi!", drop me a line on the Twilight Zone (203) or on Excalibur (203) [Atari Only!]. Watch for future updates when I get off my ass again to write the sequel. Happy Trails to You... 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