Disinformation Tactics to "Poison the Well"

General
1

When you don’t have a name like “John Smith”, rather, having a name like “Dexter Ebenezer”, makes you more unique. This makes it very difficult to hide amongst the crowd as any mention of your name can easily be indexed and found. This is where disinformation comes in.

Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. We can spread false information about ourselves to help misguide others looking into our private lives.

General Ideas

Online Persona Alteration: Create multiple online profiles across various platforms, each with different usernames, locations, and interests. Share contradictory information about yourself on these profiles, making it challenging for others to determine your true identity.

False Background Stories: Invent fictional stories about your background, education, or work experience. Share these stories selectively with different individuals or through different channels, ensuring that the information is inconsistent and difficult to verify.

Misleading Social Media Posts: Post intentionally misleading content on your social media accounts. For example, share photos or updates about events or locations you never actually attended, creating a false impression of your activities and interests.

Multiple Aliases: Use different aliases or nicknames when engaging with different people or communities online. This can help separate your true identity from the various personas you create, making it harder for others to connect the dots.

Rumor Planting: Strategically spread false rumors about yourself through trusted intermediaries or anonymous channels. This can further muddy the waters and make it challenging for others to uncover accurate information.

Controlled Leaks: Provide selective individuals or organizations with disinformation about yourself, ensuring that it will eventually spread to a wider audience. This method can help divert attention from your true identity and create confusion.

Disinformation Trail: Leave behind a trail of false information intentionally. This could include fake addresses, phone numbers, or even personal details on public platforms. By doing so, you add another layer of complexity to anyone trying to uncover your true identity.

Resources

Michael Bazzell’s Extreme Privacy book (now in PDF format) goes into detail on this “Disinformation” tactic to help hide your true information online.

Complications

Unless you are able to have an income under your own ways, you might rely on normal jobs. Having disinformation about yourself can make it difficult to verify your identity with different corporate or government entities. This is something to consider.

Thoughts?

Feel free to share ideas or tactics you have on this subject.

1 Like
2

I’ve also heard of situations where having a generic name, i.e “John Smith” has also caused issued for a legitimate John Smith being misidentified or confused with another more unsavory John Smith. This happens sometimes with corporate issued background checks.

I’ll also add that Michael Bazzell’s Extreme Privacy is an excellent resource that can be found online at: Extreme Privacy - Anna’s Archive

Cheers and thanks for the post!

1 Like
3

Username Considerations

Think like the TOR browser, where the goal is to make every user look identical.

Basic

You may have the same username on every account you have, such as “JohnDoe10”. This helps you provide credibility across platforms, and make you easier to find for others. Not great for privacy.

A Step Up

Some people may have become privacy-aware and determined to make a unique username for each account, like “WhispingWillowForge391750919”. While this does help make it harder for others to correlate your accounts together, this doesn’t help you blend in. Any search for that username will easily be found because it is so unique.

Blending In

To blend in with the crowd, an interesting method can be done. You find a popular public site like Twitter, Reddit, etc. and find a popular account/post and take note of their username. Say you find a post by @nikamats on Reddit, and they have ~1.9 million karma. Fairly popular. Doing a web search for “nikamats” and you see lots of mentioned to this user across many sites, which makes it a good candidate. Now, you would try to sign up on a different platform with that username, and if it is available, you will now be under the guise of another user.

Thoughts?

Feel free to reply with your own tactics/ideas/thoughts.