Others work for years on brilliant books only to see them vanish without a trace in a huge, impatient marketplace.

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"The beauty of the Net is that it's very easy to hide who you are, manipulate your appearance and vanish without a trace, " says Phillip McKee of the National Consumers League's Internet Fraud Watch.

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Of equal concern to her friend, Martha Payan, is how she claims illegal immigrants "fleece" government coffers by collecting welfare on multiple children, or vanish without a trace after an arrest or a hospital visit.

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