His fast selling Reborn in the USA was updated to its third edition in 1998, and new editions of Reborn in Canada and Reborn with Credit will be released in the Summer Supplement to the Loompanics Catalog (due out in May) along with a new book, Identity Theft: The Cybercrime of the Millennium. Trent has also written several articles that you can find in the Article section of the online catalog. And if you like Trent Sands’ books, you’ll want to check out John Q. Newman’s work – Understanding US Identity Documents, Heavy Duty New Identity, and Be Your Own Dick. (New 2nd edition to be released in May, 2000 .)

Loompanics Unlimited: Why is it important to you to write these kinds of books?

Trent Sands: The answer is twofold. Number one is for privacy implications, that is what got me started writing. The government was starting to bring out all sorts of new types of identification documents and all sorts of laws were getting passed, like the one requiring us to provide a Social Security number when we get a bank account, and the motor vehicle department using Social Security numbers. The other motivation is that I just don’t believe that, when you’re dealing with something as fundamental to human existence as identity documents, there should be secrets. The public has a right to know what information the government collects to create IDs and how it is created and how they use it and how it’s manipulated. My feeling is that as citizens of a free country, we have a right to know what everything on a piece of identity is about and what it says. There shouldn’t be repositories of secret knowledge when it comes to ID documents because we all have to carry them.

L.U.: What about the argument that people might use that knowledge for nefarious purposes?

T.S.: This is the whole fundamental argument, when you say you have freedom of the press and freedom of ideas and information. There are many countries that are considered to be similar to the United States that do not have that right, such as Canada or the United Kingdom or even Australia. Most of the books that I have written are officially banned from being imported into Canada because Canada customs has the right to ban information it deems offensive to the public. The challenge of the democracy is to say that we all have a right to read and a right to information, but that doesn’t translate to the right to act on that information. If you wish to learn how to build bombs, you can consult any number of books on chemistry and physics and learn how to build bombs. However, once you go beyond learning how bombs are built and then start to make them, in most jurisdictions at that point that means crossing the line. Publishers provide information, we don’t provide identification kits or how-to-make-your-own-gun kits.

L.U.: Now you’re considered an expert in the field of identity. Where did this start? Was it something you were always concerned about when you were a kid?

T.S.: I grew up as a military brat and one of the first things that happens when you turn 10 is that that you go in to get your first ID card, and of course they take a thumb print and the card has your sponsor’s Social Security number on it, and all of that kind of stuff. To access any of the services on a military base you have to carry that card. My first exposure to Loompanics came when I ordered a book on new identification that had been published by one of Loompanics competitors that I found to be quite interesting. Then I went out and did some of my own research and found that much of the stuff in the book was wrong. I sent Michael Hoy, the owner, a letter excoriating him about some of his titles and telling him that I’d done my own research and could improve upon the quality of the literature. In which case he sent me back a letter saying, basically, "put up or shut up."

L.U.: Was there a situation happening in your life that you felt like you needed to have alternate identity?

T.S.: No. It was never something particularly like that. What I found was the whole aspect to be quite interesting, like the witness protection program, just the whole concept that something as fundamental as identity could be altered. To me, that was absolutely fascinating, that the government provides thousands of people a year, most of them very dangerous criminals, with new identities, and a lot of these people are your next-door neighbors.

L.U.: What kind response do you get from your readers? What are people asking you the most?

T.S.: A lot of people are concerned about increasing information collection business by the government on ID documents. A lot of states now want thumb prints when you get a drivers license, which was not the case a few years ago. Many states now that previously didn’t want Social Security numbers as part of the drivers license process want them now. In 1992, California instituted a Social Security number as part of their process. People are concerned because now they’ve learned so much of that they thought was private isn’t private, because of the growth in the crime of identity theft. People do not trust the government agencies anymore that issue identification documents that they’re required to get, and people are worried that their private particulars are being used for purposes that they never authorized.

L.U.: What’s the single most important thing people can do to protect themselves?

T.S.: I would say the single most important thing people can do to protect themselves from identity theft is to not write personal checks. That may seem to be a little bit strange but the fact is, when you write a personal check for $50 in a store, an absolute stranger and many other people will see that check. You have just given them you name, your address, and your telephone number. You have to show a drivers license and your birth date. If you live in a state the license number is your SS number, you’ve also given them your SS number and your bank account number. For anyone who wants to rip off your identity number, you’ve given them everything that they need.

L.U.: Why is identity theft such a hot, hot crime these days?

T.S.: Well it’s a hot crime for two reasons and I’m working on an upcoming title on this. The first one is that because of the computerization of records, there’s not the ability to get away with as much anymore. Fifteen years ago if you had a bad credit history someplace you could move across the country and start all over again. It’s in the American psyche. That’s the whole point of the creation of our country. People came here from other places where they were not in favor and re-created their lives. Once they got here, they could still re-create their life. Movie stars recreate their backgrounds to make themselves appear more glamorous, to make their struggle appear to be greater than it actually was. The thing with computerization is that you can’t do that anymore. If you have a bad driving record in Ohio even 20 years ago and you try to move to Washington state, you probably still can’t get a new driver’s license. If you have a bad credit history in Michigan and you try to move to Oregon, it’s going to follow you there. Some identity thieves simply want the ability to live a better life and they don’t want to necessarily rob or steal.

L.U.: Let’s say you want to create a new identity. What’s the first thing you do?

T.S.: First thing you want to do to create a new identity is you’ve got to sit down and decide on the particulars of the new identity. There are two basic ways. There’s the infant identity method where you find the birth certificate of a child who died, usually before the age of 10, because they haven’t gotten any real identity documents. Or you could create an identity out of thin air, and then document that from the ground up. I personally do not recommend people using the infant identity method any more, because you can never be sure that another person will not find that same identity and try to do the same thing that you’re doing.

L.U.: How do you pick a name?

T.S.: What you do is you sit down and you’ll want to pick a name that you’ll answer to, a name that you don’t hate. Basically it’s quite simple. If you don’t want to get hassled by immigration, I’d say do not pick a Spanish surname. The whole watchword on creating a new identity is you want to create an identity that blends in with the great masses. So pick a German or an English name, because most people in the United States have German, English or Irish surnames. Pick one of those.

L.U.: What about something really really fakey, like John Smith? Is that something you want to stay away from as well?

T.S.: Yeah, you know, this has been funny because the three most common names in the country are Smith, Johnson and Jones. However, because they are so common, there’s almost inauthenticity about that name, especially if you’re just starting out to document it. If you go to a motor vehicle clerk with a birth certificate in the name of John Quincy Smith, you’re probably going to get more questions than if you go with one in the name of Charlie Stanikovitch. These are extremely common names, go to the phone book. But, because of that, if you’re building a new identity as an adult, you don’t want to use those names because the first thing the clerk is going to think is "oh, uh-huh, yeah your name really is John Smith."

L.U.: Is it possible really for someone to lead a completely free existence? What if they don’t have any of those documents at all?

T.S.: The problem, of course, is that you have to have a certain level of documentation to do anything. This is where the libertarians and I split – although I love them because they buy a lot of my books. And philosophically we agree on many things. Much of their philosophy is just impractical. If you want to drive a car, there’s nothing in the US Constitution that gives you the right to drive a car. Driving is a privilege that’s regulated by the state. If you want to drive a car, you’ve got to get a driver’s license. If you want to have a bank account and cash checks, you’ve got to have some identification to show. The problem is that the libertarians will say you should be able to live free of all documentation, but we live in a country of 268 million people. The only way that we know other people, generally, is from the documents they present. If you run a small business and someone wants to pay you with a check, you want to know they are who they say they are, and the check is good.

L.U.: What’s the most common mistake people make when they’re embarking on a new identity?

T.S.: They don’t understand that they have to thoroughly understand the identification system that exists in the United States – who issues what documents, what documents you should get first, what pitfalls need to be avoided. People do not understand that this is an extremely complicated undertaking. It’s not a matter of just reading a book for an hour and then going out and doing it. It’s a matter of there’s a lot of literature that needs to be read. My own books – I’ve written six – that specifically deal with ID and ID documents. You need to read all of those just to begin, and then you need to follow the steps that I outline, and that other writers have outlined, very carefully. And this is where most people do not follow through correctly and then they make mistakes and then they get caught.

L.U.: Is there anything else that people should know about identity theft?

T.S.: The first motivator for identity thieves is they merely want to rent a decent apartment, they want to be able to get telephone service. These people, because they have bad records, they can’t do basic things in society because now society keeps negative information forever on databases. Once you get negative data, it’s hard to live a basic life. The first group of identity thieves, they just want to do the basic things in life, they’re not interested in ripping you off, but of course they’re still dangerous because they’re living as you. The second group of identity thieves is the one you have to worry about. They’re the people who use identity theft as a way to commit other crimes such as credit fraud, where they take your identity and then get duplicate identifications made up in your name and then they open up brokerage accounts and open up a second mortgage on your home without you realizing it. This happened to a physician in Nebraska. They totally drained all the equity out of her house, they destroyed and took all of her money out of retirement accounts, and they got about $50,000 in credit cards and other bills created in her name before she could have any idea this was going on.

L.U.: Is there a way that you can check and make sure no one is stealing your identity?

T.S.: There are certain things you can do. The first thing these kind of thieves do is try to get credit in your name. Twice a year you should have your credit reports pulled from all three major credit bureaus – TRW, TransUnion and Equifax – to make sure that there haven’t been inquiries and accounts on there opened that you did not authorize. Because after the identity thief gets your name and number, so to speak, that’s usually the first place that he strikes. The other more dangerous aspect is that he goes and opens up credit accounts and starts bouncing big dollar checks in jewelry stores. A woman in Seattle found that out the hard way because an employee in the Washington State motor vehicles department was using the identity of women that looked something like her. When she was processing driver’s license renewals he would make a duplicate license later on at home. She went out and opened all sorts of bank accounts and then bought expensive jewelry with checks on those accounts, and of course all those checks bounced.

L.U.: What was that employee’s mistake? How did she manage to get caught?

T.S.: She got too greedy, that’s usually how these people get caught. She kept on doing this. An arrest warrant was issued in the name of one of her victims. The police arrested this woman, she was actually convicted and was waiting to be sentenced to a state prison but then the motor vehicle department clerk kept on doing the same crime and with the same modus operandi, even when this woman was sitting in jail after being convicted. By then the detectives realized they had actually convicted the victim, not the perpetrator. The problem is that this woman’s name now is permanently besmirched, because she has an arrest and conviction record on file, not only in Washington State but also with the FBI in Washington DC.

L.U.: Let’s talk a little bit more about Trent Sands. What’s your background?

T.S.: My background is in nuclear engineering. Almost 10 years of undergraduate and post graduate study.

L.U.: Are you still dabbling in that at all?

T.S.: No, not for the last three years. In the last three years my writing career now has really started to blossom to where I have been able to become a full-time writer.

L.U.: What’s next for Trent Sands?

T.S.: I’ve got another book coming out called Privacy Power which is basically a how-to guide on how to take some of your privacy back from data gatherers out there, both government and private. My first novel should be out hopefully early next year.

L.U.: What’s the novel about?

T.S.: It’s about a neo-Nazi conspiracy coming back to power in Germany again.

L.U.: Oh wow, sounds juicy. One last thing: let’s say you have new identity and you run into someone from your old life. What then?

T.S.: Well. That can definitely cause a person problems. It depends where it happens – it’s a big country, but it’s also a small country. If you’re by yourself, you can play it off and make it impossible for him to contact you – give a fake phone number. The problem is when you run across that person while you’re trying to pull off your new identity. When that happens in the witness protection program, the marshals immediately issue a new set of ID, that’s just one of the risks. The best solution is time and distance. If you’re from Cincinnati, you’d better make your new residence somewhere like Seattle or Portland, Oregon. Usually you can never see your relatives again. That’s why most people can’t pull it off. An identity is much more than a passport, birth certificate, or a Social Security card.