Having Your ID Stolen Leads to Job Loss, Prosecution

ConfusedVorlon writes "The BBC reports on the sad case of Simon Bunce. Mr. Bunce had his identity stolen, and credit cards were made to capitalize on the theft. Some of those cards were used at sites offering child pornography, and as a result Mr. Bunce was swept up in Operation Ore. The poor man was prosecuted for his 'crime', and was eventually found innocent, but in the meantime he lost his job. It took him six months to find another at a quarter of the salary. 'The police's computer technicians take several months to examine [his computers and records], and Mr Bunce could not afford to wait to repair the damage done to his reputation. "I knew there'd been a fundamental mistake made and so I had to investigate it." Recent surveys suggest that as many as one in four Britons have been affected by it. In 2007 more than 185,000 cases of identity theft were identified by Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, an increase of almost 8% on 2006.'"

Comments

Re:Strange... you missed the whole thing.

[Achromatic1978]

Ahh, the old "I carry guns in my house and I'll shoot first, ask questions later, so some sicko don't rape my daughter".

Yeah, here's a hint: people break and enter to steal your DVD player or TV, not to tie the females of the household up and torment them sexually.

Spear or sword? What kind of frothing at the mouth idiot are you?

The only thing worse than you is the people who spot someone on their property at the property line, and rather than call law enforcement, decide they're going to actively lay in wait.

You're a clown. Most cities would only have maybe one per 100,000, at most "family terrorized in home by intruders" stories per year.