When You Lie About Your Identity, Make Sure The Identity You Take Isn't Worse Than Your Own

from the a-public-service-announcement dept

Tue, Mar 20th 2007 3:13am — Mike Masnick

Back in 2003, we wrote about an identity theft scam that backfired when the identity the guy stole turned out to be worse than his own. In appears that a similar situation has happened again. This time, a car was pulled over by police and the driver was found to have a suspended license. The police asked the passenger in the car to drive the car away, as the original driver was taken into custody. However, when they asked the passenger to show his license, he said he left it at home... and then gave someone else's name as his own. The only problem? The guy whose name he gave is a wanted felon (via Fark). The police then arrested him and he had to explain that he wasn't really who he said he was, and proved it with ID which really was in his pocket. It turns out that the guy had no outstanding warrants himself... but now has been charged with giving false statements to police. So, once again, as a public service announcement to identity thieves: it's probably not a good idea if your stolen identities are in more trouble than you are.

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

17 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Duh!, 20 Mar 2007 @ 3:49am

Hahahaha. What an idiot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2007 @ 4:20am

o.O smart enough to be an identity thief, not smart enough to be careful about it. >___>;;;;
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
billy, 20 Mar 2007 @ 5:01am

haha
serves em right, the jerks
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You never know, 20 Mar 2007 @ 5:02am

Oh this is a clasic! If you're going to lie throu your teeth to a cop, make sure they are not still setting in the bathroom sink!!!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Casper, 20 Mar 2007 @ 7:05am

Lying
You have to be smart to lie. Of course if you get away with it, you don't end up in the news....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
bt garner, 20 Mar 2007 @ 7:54am

Future Sting Operations
Wonder how long it will be before the police (FBI, etc) start to leak known bad information.. .might be easier to catch those guys if the IDs that are using are also "wanted."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Newob, 20 Mar 2007 @ 9:22am

Identity or avatar?
People have a strange way of thinking about identity. IMHO, my identification cards, social security number, and all the other names and numbers that identify me are not *me*, they are avatars of myself. Just as I am not that character or spaceship in a video game that I play, I am not my identification. Characters and roles you play in real life are just avatars, like the characters and roles you play in games. Knowing that, no one can steal my identity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:25am
  
  Re: Identity or avatar?
  LMAO. Problem solved. Next!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- money, 22 Oct 2010 @ 1:49pm
  
  Re: Identity or avatar?
  umm...that was lame bro...l a m e..lame.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:34am

You are not legally required to identify yourself to the police. Just say no.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:43am
  
  Re:
  You ARE legally required to identify yourself to an officer of the law. failure to do so may result in up to 72 hours in jail, at which time they must charge you with something, or let you go.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- traveler, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:44am
  
  Re:
  Yeap, The coward is absolutely right.... You have the right to remain silent, and hire an attorney, then pay him $225/hr. to tell them who you are! This after you've given the officer enough probable cause to suspect that you're hiding something, and get a search warrant to search your car, and get you finger printed into the system, etc. Brilliant advice!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Captain Obvious, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:36am

Thank god I read this article about someone lying to a police officer on TechDirt. Nothing screams technology like a story about giving false identity to a cop.

Mike, this is either another slow news day, or you've reached a new low.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Charles Griswold, 20 Mar 2007 @ 4:58pm
  
  Re: Captain Obvious
  Thank god I read this article about someone lying to a police officer on TechDirt. Nothing screams technology like a story about giving false identity to a cop.
  
  Mike, this is either another slow news day, or you've reached a new low.
  
  Not to be obvious or anything, but identity theft largely is a tech issue. In a non-networked world, identity theft wouldn't be nearly the problem that it is.
  
  BTW, nothing screams "I have nothing valuable to do with my time" like deliberately misconstruing the theme of an article (identity theft gone wrong vs. lying to cops) and then making a really lame attempt at sarcasm.
  
  Anyway, kudos to Mike for this article. It's nice to see the lighter side of tech issues once in a while. :-)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
theOngman, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:39am

>_>
that is fail
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
anonymous coward, 20 Mar 2007 @ 11:17am

banruptcy and dui, i'm just hoping someone tries to steal my identity. good luck with that!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
|333173|3|_||3, 21 Mar 2007 @ 5:02am

releasing information for identity theives to use of suspects would not help catch the original suspect, unless they reported to the police to complian, even if it would help catch the identity thieves. Also, releasing personal details of suspect which could be used to identify him might be a viollation of the presumption of innocence. After all, reporters are not supposed to reveal the street address of a suspect whose trial they are reporting on.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]