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Is it a crime to fake your death? If so, what is the punishment?
Question
#60929. Asked by doctordolittle.
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Arpeggionist
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I think it depends on the purpose of faking your death. If, say, you merely wanted to cash in on your life insurance or comit some other type of fraud by faking your death (as usually is the case), then it is of course a crime in most countries.
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my_baby_love
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On the other hand if you fake your death to scare your kids on Halloween you probably would not be arrested.
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robboy
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First of all, I'd take exception to anyone faking my death, so I assume you mean faking 'someone's' death. I gather it depends on how you go about it and to what end the deed will serve. If you break laws such as making a false police report, try to cash in on insurance, create a phony passport, etc., then yes, it's a crime. So if it's done and nobody knows, there's nothing and nobody to prosecute. Interesting case here:
http://www.legalreader.com/archives/002524.html
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gmackematix
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So in summary, it would appear that faking deaths is not in itself a crime so I don't think that John Stonehouse, for example, would have been charged for his "disappearance".
However, the status of any crimes such as desecration of graves to achieve this end or subsequent crimes like fraud or tax evasion of course, remains unchanged. Of course, in the very unlikely event that the fakery is successful, you might get away with it...
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Arpeggionist
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One can issue a passport under any name in the US. As long as I do not intend to use a particular name for illegal purposes, I can claim my name is George W. Bush or Willie Nelson and nobody could arrest me.
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gmackematix
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I suppose it is about time a specific country was mentioned as laws do differ a bit between them...
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