How to fake your own death

First, you need to figure out what kind of death you want to have. For example, suicide, accident, or murder.

Next, you need to figure out how you will fake your own death.

Suicide and Murder are the two easiest to fake, unless you live in a town with an excellent police department, or have a suspicious parent/guardian/spouse who loves/hates you a whole lot and has lots of money to spend.

Accident is more difficult because you need to lead people to the conclusion that you are dead without actually producing a body. (unless you mean to kill someone?!)

Suicide can be faked most easily; for example by leaving a suicide note, and jumping off a bridge and not resurfacing while making sure there are plenty of people to see you and not actually managing to drown yourself. Research is crucial! Make sure you know how to swim well and how to land in water from a high altitude without hurting yourself.

Logistically, you need to have a getaway car secreted in some nearby spot and don't be stupid and pack up your room. Dead people don't need their clothes and cds.

Murder is also fairly easy, but this often requires pinning it on someone else, which may cause moral issues and also requires that the patsy have a plausible motive. Being murdered by an anonymous person, like a mugger or a thief, is very unlikely to work since your death is not easily verifiable and they can't have a plausible motive to work with. Think Double Jeopardy, and Wild Things. Again, the key is not leaving a body, but still making it obvious that you are dead. Smears of blood, teeth and body parts such as fingers are often sufficient identifiers, but use your imagination.

Accident is the hardest to fake successfully without having a body, so the only real way to do it is by the 'missing and presumed dead' method. A climb of a dangerous high mountain, or hiking alone in the forest, or driving somewhere and never making it to your supposed destination and leaving a burnt out car and smears of blood all over the place should work, but again, use your creativity.

The important things to remember however, are

1. Careful planning == greater chances of success

2. Don't go blabbing to your friends

3. Don't change your mind at the last minute, as doubts and hesitation at the last minute may cause someone to get hurt or die, for real.

Hell, it's better than killing yourself, right?

this node is provided for entertainment and informational purposes only. don't try this at home, kids

Faking your own death is the easy part. The tough bit is emerging from your charade as a new person. If you're in the US you need a new Social Security Number. You need a birth certificate to receive a SSN. Where do you get a birth certificate? Those sort of records are notoriously hard to find. You're not likely to get one just by asking. You can't use just anyone's either. If you use one from someone who's still alive, or worse already dead, you're back to zero and probably incarcerated for Identity Theft.

A popular "film method" is to get a birth certificate for an infant who died shortly after birth because, supposedly, Death Certificates aren't issued for infant deaths, or some such nonsense.

Unfortunately we all know that the movies aren't real life. It's easy enough to get a fake ID and live under an assumed name for a short period on time, but the first time you get pulled over for a minor traffic infraction, it's The Big House for you.

It's relatively easy to bribe an official in Haiti to draw you up a death certificate. About 500$ USD. So if you really want to get this done with, go on vacation, have too good of a time, come back dead and less $500 bucks. Piece of cake.

Don't ask me why I know this! :)

While watching coverage of the WTC tragedy aftermath, they were showing a huge repository of trucked away rubble. Volunteers were sorting through the rubble for bodies and identification.

My father, who was watching with me, commented; "Now if someone wanted to disappear, look at how easy it would be to throw your wallet in the pile, and just walk away."

As Roninspoon suggested, you do have to have an identity number to get by. But you don't have to have the card! In America, the Social Security card is not a valid form of ID. No one can require you to actually carry your SS card. If the police pull you over for a traffic violation, they don't check your SSN, they check your driver's license.

That said, it's probably best in the long run to stay off the road. You can virtually disappear in any major city, and use public transportation for thirty years without showing up on any kind of government radar. Who needs cars anyway? (I find it funny that people in movies always try to vanish in the countryside - it's much easier to do it in a major urban center, and there are more jobs available as well.)

If you can't get a good job to pay you in cash, you can pay taxes with a fake SSN. It only gets checked once a year. When it does eventually trigger an error message on some minor clerk's computer, they still aren't going to send out the G-Men. What will happen instead is that you'll get a letter from the Social Security administration or the IRS asking you to verify your number. It is probably a good idea not to respond to this letter, and be prepared to move on within the next couple of months. If you aren't ready for this kind of year-by-year lifestyle, you probably shouldn't fake your own death. On the other hand, you'd be surprised how easy this whole thing is if you're willing to make a few sacrifices.

I did this for only a short period, reinventing myself as a British citizen so I could work in London for just over a year. Nothing major. But I've known a lot of people who did it for years, and there are literally millions of people who live for decades "outside the system", either working under assumed names or simply not letting themselves be noticed by the people who care. Chances are that you know a few of them, too.