Posted on 10/18/2006 6:03:01 AM PDT by ExSoldier
This is a vanity for a SCARY (to me anyway) new "service." Try typing in your real name and choose your home state and see what pops up. Then try the names of loved ones or folks you know. You can do all states or just one.
The information is at least three years out of date; it is also exactly the same thing you could get from calling a local telco or looking up your own name in a three year old copy of the white pages.
Not a very good database at all.
Brave watcher.
I am a 66 year old woman and there wasn't really much more I could do except watch and phone. LOL!
It's all public records. The kind of thing detective agencies used to search by hand. Unless you can eliminate the public record, you cannot eliminate the info.
This 'scary' email has been making the rounds for years. When you are giving information away, you just have to be careful about who gets what.
I didn't know there was a license plate database online. Care to share the link? A woman passes me on a curving rural road every morning on my way to work. I'm doing the speed limit, she's doing 80. She apparently doesn't get the concept of oncoming traffic, oftentimes just missing head on collisions. I'd love to call her.
Me too. In fact that's the way I originally stumbled onto FreeRepublic. Looking up something & seeing lots of posts on FR, I decided to check it out & I've been here everyday since. This is where I get to exercise my free speech & I'll be proud to go down for the cause.
Google does our posts too...
I THINK this is the database that was being worked on by that cult group "Heaven's Gate". They were based in CA and all poisoned ? themselves to catch a comet.
Remember that? There were a bunch of them holed up in a house in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, and most were software engineers.
I believe this is the database they were collecting.
Where does ZabaSearch find the information?
ZabaSearch does not gather or generate information. ZabaSearch quickly accesses public information and displays what is available in the public domain. Many people assume ZabaSearch controls the information found in ZabaSearch results pages. However, ZabaSearch simply serves as a search engine in locating available public records and does not create the records found. Information typically makes it to the public domain via a wide variety of sources, including but not limited to: phone listings, court records, real property records, subscriptions etc. Sources vary state by state and region by region. Unlike ZabaSearch, there are many companies who do gather, generate, compile, house and sell public information, most of which are publicly traded. This practice is, and always has been, legal in the United States and is the basis for the 2 billion dollar U.S. information industry.
What can I do to prevent my information from becoming so widely available?
If you care to make the effort, there are steps that can be taken to better conceal information available about you in many public record databases. Many things can be done quickly and inexpensively, other methods can be more costly and time consuming.
It is important to note that it is virtually impossible to completely remove information available about yourself from public record. Some public information can be controlled. Some cannot be. For example, real property transactions and most court records will always be part of the public domain.
Efforts made in this regard help to greatly contain and manage your information as you like, but no method can ever guarantee certain removal of all records.
Here are five very effective means of controlling information about yourself in the public domain:
1) Open a P.O. Box for your personal correspondence and bills. Submit a change of address form at your local post office, forwarding your mail to your new post office box. This is the single most effective and inexpensive thing you can do to quickly remove your current address from a majority of public record databases.
Search Local P.O. Box locations U.S. Postal Service Change of Address Form
2) Having your telephone number unlisted does not mean your telephone number is not available to the public. This is the single biggest misconception people have about having an unlisted number. Un-listing your telephone number simply keeps it out of directory assistance and white pages. As many experience, even taking this step with the phone companies is not a guarantee that they will not subsequently disclose this number. Phone companies have no further ability or obligation to prevent the distribution of your phone number once you start to give out this unlisted number to other individuals, to businesses, or when you use this unlisted number in legal documents that are filed as public records. The best thing you can do to control the distribution of your telephone number is to start with a new unlisted number and block caller ID information from being displayed when you place phone calls. Telephone numbers that at one time were listed, and are later unlisted, are most likely already widely distributed in the public record domain. Public databases are much less likely to have a telephone record of yours if you start with a new unlisted number that has never been listed before and take care as to how the number is used in your day to day life.
3) Never put your name, number or information on any form or application (in writing or over the phone) without checking to see what the policy is of the company or agency to which you are submitting the form. You will be surprised to find out how many credit card companies, banks, financial institutions and government agencies share or sell your information unless you specifically request that they do not distribute it.
4) Mail a written request to all major information suppliers requesting your information be removed. Some will comply, others will not. ZabaSearch has such a policy in place and soon will offer assistance in helping you contact information companies willing to remove your information.
5) Start a corporation, trust or d.b.a. to conduct some of your personal business which will require the filing of public records. This is a more expensive option, but there are many online services that offer reasonably priced opportunities to do this quickly and efficiently. These options tend to offer the greatest control over your information over extended periods of time, but typically require an ongoing effort to manage well. Always consult with a licensed attorney or tax specialist before taking these steps as they are best qualified to guide you. You can begin your research on these options here: Research opening a corporation, trust or d.b.a.
In cases of no profession - it listed things like "housewife" or "retired".
Neither of my names are common but I don't show up. My husband shows up with my initial as his middle name. It shows us with our real phone number and also our son's.
When you occasionally have a really bad day, and you just
need to take it out on someone, don't take it out on someone you know, take it out on someone you don't know. I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I'd forgotten to make. I found the number and dialed it.
A man answered, saying "Hello." I politely said, "This is Chris. Could I please speak with Robyn Carter?"
Suddenly a manic voice yelled out in my ear "Get the right effing number!" and the phone was slammed down on me. I couldn't believe that anyone could be so rude.
When I tracked down Robyn's correct number to call her, I found that I had accidentally transposed the last two digits. After hanging up with her I decided to call the 'wrong' number again. When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled "You're an asshole!" and hung up.
I wrote his number down with the word "Asshole" next to it, and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up and yell, " You're an asshole!" It always cheered me up.
When Caller ID was introduced, I thought my therapeutic "asshole calling" would have to stop. So, I called his number and said, "Hi, this is John Smith from the Verizon company. I'm calling to see if you're familiar with our Caller ID Program?"
He yelled "NO!" and slammed down the phone.
I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're an asshole!"
One day I was at the store, getting ready to pull into a parking spot. Some guy in a black BMW cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for. I hit the horn and yelled that I'd been waiting for that spot, but the idiot ignored me.
I noticed a "For Sale" sign in his back window which included his phone number, so I wrote down the number. A couple of days later, right after calling the first asshole (I had his number on speed dial) I thought that I'd better call the BMW asshole too.
I said, "Is this the man with the black BMW for sale?" "Yes, it is", he said.
"Can you tell me where I can see it ?" I asked.
"Yes, I live at 34 Mowbray Blvd, in Vancluse. It's a yellow house, and the car's parked right out in front."
"What's your name?" I asked.
"My name is Don Hansen," he said.
"When's a good time to catch you, Don?"
"I'm home every evening after five."
"Listen, Don, can I tell you something?"
"Yes?"
"Don, you're an asshole!"
Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial too.
Now, when I had a problem, I had two assholes to call.
Then I came up with an idea.
I called Asshole #1.
"Hello."
"You're an asshole!" (But I didn't hang up.)
"Are you still there?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Stop calling me," he screamed.
"Make me," I said.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Don Hansen."
"Yeah? Where do you live?"
"Asshole, I live at 34 Mowbray Blvd, Vaucluse, a yellow house, with my black Beamer parked in front."
He said, "I'm coming over right now, Don. And you had better start saying your prayers."
I said, "Yeah, like I'm really scared, asshole," and hung up.
Then I called Asshole #2. "Hello?" he said.
"Hello, asshole," I said. H
e yelled, "If I ever find out who you are..."
"You'll what?" I said.
"I'll kick your ass," he exclaimed.
I answered, "Well, asshole, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now."
Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I lived at 34 Mowbray Blvd, Vaucluse, and that I was on my way over there to kill my gay lover.
Then I called Channel 9 News about the gang war going down on Mowbray Blvd. Vancluse.
I quickly got into my car and headed over to Mowbray. I got there just in time to watch two assholes beating the crap out of each other in front of six cop cars, an overhead police Helicopter and a news crew.
NOW I feel much better. Anger management really works...
When I enter my name, it comes up many times. But none of them are me. :) No matter where I have lived there are several different people with the exact same name. And I have run into some of them. In one city in which I lived I belonged to the same gym as two of them. So sometimes I would get their monthly statements. I still occasionally get calls from long-lost relatives of one of them. :) But I am not on that list, which is reassuring.
My name revealed absolutely nothing, which is no accident and is as it should be. A couple other names I entered revealed a whole bunch of info though..
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