THERE’S a handy guide on the internet for those contemplating a fake death and a brand new life.

The step-by-step instructions include taking out small bundles of cash in the years leading up to your disappearance, planting a suicide note so nobody else will be incriminated and eliminating all contact with the people you used to know.

In bullet point form, it seems relatively straightforward. But, as one Florida businessman found out this week, there’s nothing straightforward about it.

The Florida Times Union reported on Tuesday that Jose Lantigua was facing federal fraud charges after trying to fake his own death without success. He could spend 50 years in prison.

Lantigua, 63, went missing in 2013. His family said he was suffering from mad cow disease and had travelled to Venezuela for experimental treatment. There, according to relatives, he died and was cremated.

The elaborate ruse was completed when his daughter Christina sang Amazing Grace in front of family and friends at a memorial service in Jacksonville.

Onlookers were unaware that the furniture store owner, who had slid deeper into debt in the months before his disappearance, was alive and well.

He was hiding in North Carolina where he had grown a beard and was successfully living a new life. He managed to avoid detection but, like so many before him, he slipped up.

The error came when he tried to use a social security number belonging to a woman who was born in 1917. He was arrested and this week dragged before the courts.

He pleaded guilty to fraud charges and joined a long list of people who’ve tried to fake their own deaths and failed.

AN ELABORATE FAKE CRIME SCENE

It appears Florida is the fake death capital of the world.

Last year Richard Ohrn rented a boat in Florida, smeared his blood all over the deck and left it at sea. He boarded an inflatable, crept 10km back to shore and started hiding.

In his car, which police found parked a short distance away, he left his wallet, his mobile phone and his car keys.

The blood on the boat was his. Police were convinced he’d met with foul play and launched an extensive search.

They discovered that in the weeks leading up to his “death”, Ohrn had rented a second truck and purchased the inflatable boat.

Ohrn, whose wife was being sued for $400,000, walked into a police station and confessed.

The 44-year-old was charged with communicating false distress. In August he agreed to pay $1 million to cover the cost of the search.

WOMAN TURNED UP TO OWN MEMORIAL

Ever wondered who would turn up to your funeral if you died? Alison Matera did.

The 27-year-old from New Port Richey in Florida planned her own death over several months.

She told friends in a choir she was dying of cancer then posed as a nurse delivering regular updates.

One day shortly after leaving the church Matera phoned choir director Tim Paquin to deliver the bad news. The voice was familiar — it sounded like Matera herself — but he couldn’t be sure.

According to a 2007 report in the St Petersburg Times, Matera got wind of a memorial service Mr Paquin was organising. She couldn’t help herself.

Friends noticed a woman who looked identical to the deceased was sitting alone in one of the wooden pews. They approached her and she told them she was Matera’s sister.

Suspicious, Mr Paquin phoned around. He called funeral homes and there were no reports of a woman named Alison Matera dying.

Police checked on the 27-year-old’s apartment and there she was. She confessed to the whole thing.

HOW NOT TO GET OUT OF A PHONE CONTRACT

A customer’s frustration with the company managing his mobile phone bills led to him taking extreme action. He faked his own death and had a friend fax the company his death certificate.

Chicago man Corey Taylor made headlines after his plot failed and Verizon Wireless caught on.

“I thought, ‘What have I got to lose, besides a cellphone I despise’,” Taylor told The Washington Post.

The reason for wanting to fake his own death was because he did not want to pay the $175 bill to be released from his contract.

“In the end, I forked over the money,” Taylor said. “But I bet I sent a definite message about how much people hate being strapped to a cellphone that doesn’t work.”

Taylor is not the only person to have faked their death to get out of a bill. David Venezia was facing a $4000 bill for overdue university fees at a prestigious Boston school.

His cousin told receivers he had died in a car accident but the lies didn’t last. He was forced to pay it all back.

ON THE RUN FOR 20 YEARS THEN ...

Bennie Wint made a good show of his life as a new man. He lasted 20 years but was undone by a faulty light above the rear numberplate of his vehicle.

Wint, also from Florida, went missing 27 years ago after appearing to drown during a swim at a local beach. He left behind a young daughter, a fiancee and drug-related activities, according to CNN.

In January 2009, police pulled over a vehicle and arrested the driver on suspicion of driving without a licence. The name he gave did not appear on any databases.

“I found it suspicious and believed it to be a false name,” Police Sergeant Stacy Wyatt said.

Wint confessed but did not reveal his motivation for disappearing. His former partner, Patricia Hollingsworth, said she looked for Wint for a long time after he disappeared behind the breakers at the Daytona Beach on September 25, 1989.

Since resurfacing, Wint has kept largely to himself. ABC News reported he would only participate in interviews if there was payment involved. Nobody, it appears, is willing to pay for the full story.

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE WORLD OF DEATH FRAUD

Elizabeth Greenwood has a very special interest in the lives of those who choose the dark path of faking their own death.

The New York native was staring down a huge six-figure student loan debt in 2013 when a friend casually suggested: “You could fake your own death?”

At first it seemed crazy but later she began to research whether it was indeed possible. She Googled “fake your own death” and “despairing thought experiment”.

In a book she published about what happened next — Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud — Greenwood said the more she looked into the subject the clearer it became that faking one’s own death was not only doable, but increasingly popular.

“I had stumbled into a bizarre underworld made up of people with forbidden knowledge and those seeking it,” she wrote.

“And while my intention to fake my death might not have been as earnest ... I had definitely become a seeker as well.”

Greenwood went through the motions as a bit of an experiment. She travelled to the Philippines and secured a death certificate on the black market that would tell the world she died in a car crash in Manila.

“I’m dead on paper, but still kicking in Brooklyn,” she told the New York Post.

Her book offers tips on getting away with it. Tips include: Don’t drown, disappear while hiking, make a plan for the afterlife, never Google yourself and avoid staged funerals. The Alison Materas of the world should pay special attention to the last point.