Wired Magazine's Evan Ratliff is on the Lam: Find Him and Win $5000

Wired Magazine's Evan Ratliff is on the run, and if you find him, snap his photograph, and say the word "fluke," you win $5000. In a contest run by Wired, Ratliff is trying an experiment in how to erase your identity in the digital age.

Following an article Ratliff himself wrote about Matthew Sheppard, a man beset by financial misgivings, who faked his own death to escape his problems and for his wife to collect on the insurance money, but was ultimately caught by the trappings of modern technology, Ratliff is trying to stay under the radar for one month.

Ratliff "disappeared" on August 15th, but amateur Wired sleuths are given the same information a well-trained private investigator is given. Ratliff's IP address logs, bank and credit card transactions, and occasional interviews with friends that give clues about the writer are posted semi-daily on the contest page, as well as the contest's Twitter page.

Readers are automatically disqualified if they break any laws to find him, or contact his family members. The staff of Wired is not eligible to win, as they are the ones dispersing little tidbits of information about Ratliff's activity.

In the rules, Ratliff promises not to live the life of a hermit for 30 days: "I'll remain in the US and will be online regularly. I will continue to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and I'll make cell phone calls. I'll generally stay in the kind of social environment I like to live in (no hiding in a cabin in Montana), and I'll keep track of my pursuers, searching constantly for news about myself."

A biographical dossier is on the contest page, including his interests, which might be a clue as to his future whereabouts. For example, an avid soccer fan, readers figured out from a clue he left that he was watching the Fulham game. Somewhere. The readers are using social networking to piece together his possible whereabouts by brainstorming answers to his breadcrumb clues.

Ratliff's experiment points out some scary loopholes in our public record system and the invasion of our personal privacy. One reader, VanishingAct101, was able to find out his license plate numbers and make of vehicle. "Don't ask me how I found out, but it's solid and legal," wrote VanishingAct101.

It points out how easily an identity can be unmasked if the proper legwork is done. The odds are against Ratliff being able to disappear for the full 30 days., and he will likely be caught by an amateur detective in the right place at the right time. Imagine what an experienced hacker would be able to do with your information.