5 Minute Tradecraft - Fake Names

[Music] when choosing a pseudonym or a fake persona make sure to choose a name that is similar to your real identity but still different that way if you accidentally say your real name and someone catches you you can easily brush it off by making it sound like you did in fact say your fake persona in fact this tradecraft has quite a history one of the better known examples comes from the more famous case of adolf eichmann one of nazi germany's highest ranking officers and often touted as being one of the architects of the holocaust used this trick to evade detection by american forces to great success on the run after the war he was actually captured by an american patrol as he attempted to leave the country upon inspection the soldiers discovered his blood type tattooed under his arm marking him as a member of the ss but they still didn't know who he was he then confessed to being a cavalry officer by the name of otto ekman he specifically chose this name so that if anyone in the prison camp were to notice him and call out his real name the american guards who did not know the nuances of the german language wouldn't be able to tell the difference between eichmann and ekman and thi ame the american guards who did not know the nuances of the german language wouldn't be able to tell the difference between eichmann and ekman and this actually worked quite well he was able to hide in an allied prison camp under his false name just being one prisoner out of the other twenty thousand until he was able to escape europe through the infamous nazi rat lines until his eventual capture by mossad in argentina though this didn't work out for him in the end this clever trick enabled one of the most evil people on the earth to evade capture just long enough to escape another excellent less serious example of this is a gaffe that occurred during an episode of the office john krasinski might be a super spy on his other show but in real life he probably wouldn't be that good of a case officer because during the episode in which meredith wanted him to sign her cast he actually signed his real name john krasinski and no one on the planet would ever mistake that signature for jim halpert but if you are forced to sign your fake name on a document and you accidentally sign your real name you can always play it off like that's how you sign your fake name this will only be possible if n a document and you accidentally sign your real name you can always play it off like that's how you sign your fake name this will only be possible if you choose a signature that is very similar to your own real name signatures are barely legible anyway so if a letter or two is off it won't be as noticeable as if the entire word is different also pay special attention to choose a fake name that has the same opening letters as your first name most people when signing documents overemphasize the first letters of their first and last name so it will be very easy to see if your signature is fake by any signs of hesitation on that first letter signatures are also instinctive something that we can do at any time without any real thought this is dangerous for someone who is operating under a pseudonym so by choosing a fake name that is similar to your real name you make it possible to course correct mid signature so if you start to sign your real name but realize your mistake you can rapidly just scribble away the rest of the signature blurring your mistake away this would be impossible to do if your fake name was completely different from your real name changing a signature mid-stroke is ing your mistake away this would be impossible to do if your fake name was completely different from your real name changing a signature mid-stroke is a dead giveaway that you might not be who you say you are but by picking the right name you can certainly mitigate your mistakes while you will never fool a person trained to analyze signatures in handwriting you will likely be able to fool an untrained person quite easily even if you make a mistake so when choosing a fake persona choose one that is similar enough to your real name and spelling pronunciation and when writing your signature this seemingly small trick will give you a slight advantage and in the intelligence and operational world we can use every advantage we can [Music] get [Music] you