Actor In ID Theft Commercial... Has ID Stolen

from the whoops dept

An actor who takes part in a commercial recommending identity theft insurance apparently didn't pay much attention to the lesson he was giving. Despite telling people to be careful about what documents they discard, a British tabloid did a little dumpster diving at his house and found he discarded plenty of info useful in identity theft. Of course, the article does go a little over board in warning about the risks of identity theft. While it is, obviously, a problem, they imply that it's a much bigger risk then it is. The article quotes a study saying that "a quarter of UK adults have had their identity stolen or know somebody who has been a victim of ID fraud." As you get through the first half of that sentence, it sure sounds like one quarter of all UK adults have been victims. Then, it's only the second half that clarifies with the "or knows someone who..." which certainly seems to make it seem like a much smaller issue.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    hanzie, 14 Mar 2005 @ 6:52am

    the fine print again...

    "a quarter of UK adults have had their identity stolen or know somebody who has been a victim of ID fraud."

    Doesn't that simply mean that approximately 25% of UK adults saw this buffoon in his ID theft commercial? :-)

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.