There’s a rule that true survival preppers abide by and that is to never discuss their prepping plans openly. Uninformed survivalists sometimes brag to others – their friends and family, neighbors and even strangers online.
Doing this can put a target on your back because if and when a survival event takes place, everyone suddenly knows who to go to if they are left unprepared without supplies or a plan.
The last thing you want to have happen is for a survival situation to unfold and dozens of people show up asking for (or demanding) supplies because they’re in a desperate situation.
This includes strangers who you might have interacted with or who saw your content on an online forum or social media site if you used your real name and location. You have to be careful and abide by an anonymous mindset when learning about and making prepping plans for your family’s shelter and survival.
There are plenty of ways to maintain a low profile and interact with other preppers, reinforcing your knowledge while not disclosing who you are. This is important for everyone in your family to understand – especially your children who are growing up in a world where ‘sharing’ pretty much every little thing about your life, circumstances, feelings and gripes is expected and encouraged by the Social Media Apps they are using every day.
If your spouse is involved in the prepper journey, make sure they’re also using a pseudonym online. With your kids, make sure they know to keep a tight lip about any preparations you’re making.
Carefully Gathering Information About Prepping Online
You want to take the proper precautions when you are engaging in survival prepping online. This is a demographic that seeks a lot of information on the Internet because of everyone’s willingness to share good tips and advice.
Of course, you can always lurk quietly without interacting to gather the information you need to get started. However, if you have to ask a question or need guidance about something in particular, you will need to mask your identity in as many ways as possible.
You may not think this is even necessary – because how many people would actually show up at your doorstep. But you’d be surprised about the lengths people would go to if their family is in a dire situation and they were in need of the supplies that you had taken time and effort to gather.
The first thing you want to do is always remain anonymous and online forums and social media platforms. Never reveal your location, age, or any other demographic details about yourself or your family.
You may want to use a VPN (virtual private network) that ensures you are anonymous while browsing and interacting online, and you can set your location to anywhere in the world.
You can also use messaging apps and email services that are encrypted so that your personal details are not easily accessed by others. Another thing you want to consider is not just how you are presenting yourself to others, but what you’re saying.
You never want to brag about or reveal what you have been doing to prepare. It’s one thing to share a tip, or ask for advice, but another to tell someone that you have an entire year’s worth of food stored up.
Networking Offline for Survival Preparations
Many people think that the Internet is the only way to network with others for survival prepping purposes, but there are many other ways that you can interact with this community without the World Wide Web.
You still want to remain as anonymous as possible when you are communicating offline. For example, you can use a HAM radio that will give you some security and anonymity when you are communicating with preppers.
You’ll be using call signs in place of your name, and you don’t want to disclose any personal information about where you live or what you have. You will need to get a license in order to use a HAM radio.
There are also in person events that you can attend and learn more about the survival prepper community in your area. You can still maintain a semblance of anonymity in these groups.
You don’t have to disclose your real name, and you can attend the meet ups and gatherings in a way that allows you to blend in without being memorable. As you study survival prepping, you’ll know that there’s a term for this called Grey Man, and this works within the prepper community as well.
If you are purchasing items from anyone, you can register for a post office box so that you can receive information and supplies there without having to disclose your home address.
These are not very expensive, and it allows you to separate your survival prepper strategy from your true identity at home. You can also use that PO Box as your return address in case you need to send anything.
Prepper Community Planning with Fellow Survivalists
There may come a time when you are considering joining or starting a survival prepper community where each member will be invited to build a homestead in a location with other like-minded individuals.
If you are joining or starting a community like this, you still need to be somewhat anonymous in the beginning until you discover whether or not you can fully trust these individuals.
Ideally, with these communities, each person will bring something to the table. They usually want a mix of skills, such as a doctor or appliance repairman, carpenter, gardener, etc.
But you also might be able to get in on the community based on what you bring in terms of gear. For example, if you are a farmer who has big equipment that can be used in the field, that could work in your favor to foster those connections with other homestead preppers looking for a community.
This is a way for the prepper this community to become unified and pool their resources and knowledge so that they are more resilient in the face of a true survival situation. If you want to be immersed in that type of sharing community, there will come a time when your anonymity will need to be reduced, but you don’t have to divulge everything about your supplies.
You’ll need to work together to pinpoint a location that will work for all of you, and then work together to ensure resources are allocated properly and a defense system is in place to protect the community.
You should also have rules and guidelines in place where every person in the group knows the proper way to remain silent about preparations so that they’re not putting everyone and the supplies in jeopardy.
Maintaining a sense of anonymity as you go through this journey is going to offer an added layer of peace of mind. You never want to worry that a predatory criminal is going to seize the opportunity to steal from you because you (or a member of your family) were not able to stay silent about your plans and endeavors.
If you’ve already made the mistake of being too open about what you’ve been doing, stop the behavior now and scrub everything off of the Internet if you’ve published openly about it on social media, in a forum or on a blog.
This will hopefully not be too late, and others can forget about the fact that they’ve seen you share this information. When they go looking for it through a search, your results will no longer come up.
Now that you learned about the importance of staying anonymous when doing any survival prepping it is time to move onto the next chapter – Part 29: You Need to Start Getting in Shape for Any Survival Emergency
If you missed the previous installment you can read it here: Part 27How to Pick a Farm Animal to Start raising for Survival Prepping