Faking Your Death: Harder than it Used to Be?

I have no statistics on rates of success with faking one's death for insurance money and/or to escape debt, but a recent story suggests that it may not be too easy these days. A New York man, apparently aided by his son, went "missing" off of Jones beach two weeks ago but was located a few days later when he was issued a speeding ticket in South Carolina. It sounds as though the scheme may have been half-baked, but with today's surveillance and electronic tracking methods, far more elaborate preparations would be necessary than this man and his son evidently made.

I'm reminded of a film I watched (pictured above), in which a man (played by the always satisfyingly creepy Anthony Perkins) miraculously and secretly survives a plane crash for which he has purchased flight insurance and terrorizes his estranged wife (Sophia Loren) until she agrees to fraudulently collect the insurance money and split it with him to be rid of him forever. In this case, a man simply faked his death because the opportunity presented itself; he used luck to his advantage and was (nearly) successful in acquiring the insurance money. It is surprisingly easy for Sophia Loren to collect it; further, Anthony Perkins can presumably chuck his passport and live incognito in Europe. Raymond Roth is probably a desperate idiot, but I can't help but wonder if he could have disappeared off Jones Beach if he had lived fifty years ago.