QUESTION: I am concerned about identity theft. Often, identity thieves obtain an individual’s name and home address and from there, begin the process of stealing an identity. Accordingly, am I allowed to create a fake home address and use it whenever I encounter a person who I need to do business with, but I suspect nonetheless? I would then work out a process with my mailman to have the mail delivered from my fake address to me.
ANSWER: I am not certain exactly how you work this out with your mailman, but assuming that you can, it would appear that you would be permitted to do this. The Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 153:3) rules that if a suspicious individual asks you how far you are travelling you can lie about the distance, to throw him off your trail so to speak. The Shulchan Aruch bases its ruling on the Gemorah in Avodah Zarah 25b, that cites Yaakov Avinu who told the evil Eisav, that he was traveling to “Seir” when he was really traveling to “Succos”. The Shulchan Aruch rules this way, even though there are two other Gemorahs (Bava Metziah 23b and Chulin 127a) that seem to conclude otherwise (according to some commentaries).
Therefore, as it relates to your case, if you have reasonable suspicions about an individual, you would be allowed to tell him that you live at an address you fabricated, the same way Yaakov fabricated where he was going to Eisav.
