Having your identity stolen isn't funny!

Having your identity hijacked, taking years to clear your name and, in the process, losing the house of your dreams, is no laughing matter. But one man's learnt to grin and bear it. Comedian Bennett Arron made his ordeal into a hit Edinburgh Festival show, sponsored by CreditExpert.

Bennett explains to his audiences how, even though he had arranged for his mail to be forwarded from his previous address, something had slipped through - a simple mailshot. Using just this one piece of paper with Bennett's name on it, the fraudster had managed to open one credit account. And once he had one account, he had enough to go to other companies.

"I registered the crimes with the police and then tried to track down the perpetrator myself," says Bennett. "Extraordinarily, there were a couple of accounts which were still up and running. One of these was a mobile telephone account. I obtained the number and I rang it. When this male voice answered I found myself saying; 'Is that Bennett Arron?' which is something I'd heard many times, but never said myself. Anyway, there was a pause and then the voice said, 'Yes,' rather aggressively, which annoyed me as I'm polite on the phone. Anyway, I replied, 'Snap!' He hung up."

Bennett eventually managed to track down the fraudster by ringing the companies where the accounts were held and pretending he was not himself but the other Bennett Arron. "They wouldn't give me any information on him - his address and so on - so I had to pretend I was him. It was all a little weird. And when I did eventually come face to face with him I thought it was more than a little weird. There I was, a short stocky Jewish/Welsh guy, having his identity stolen by a man who turned out to be a large Nigerian."

Now, seven years later, Bennett finds it funny to talk about the experience on stage, in both senses of the word.

In the show, he describes how he went about trying to prove the debts were not his - mainly because the date of birth the fraudster gave was wrong and the signature he used was wrong. "It was one of the most dreadful periods of my life. For over two years I had bad debts on my credit report. I couldn't get a mortgage or a loan. I couldn't even join my local gym because they wouldn't accept a direct debit - so it wasn't all bad news."

Bennetts show, It Wasn't Me It Was Bennett Arron, received rave reviews and was pick of the week in The Guardian for three consecutive weeks. The Festival's over now but the show is on tour, see www.bennettarron.co.uk for more information.

"From what the audiences say, there's been a lot of payment card cloning. I never realised how widespread it was. And other types of con are astonishingly common," says Bennett. "One woman received a cold calling telephone call the night after the show. She was half way though giving information and remembered what she'd heard, so she ended that conversation very quickly indeed. She e-mailed me about it the next day."

"E-mail scams as we know are also widespread. A couple of people in one audience replied to one, thinking that it was from their bank and lost thousands of pounds. Someone at another show had also had their identity stolen from a mailshot that had been sent to a previous address. However, fortunately that was caught in time, unlike mine," says Bennett. "My identity hijack went on for a year-and-a-half before I was alerted. If I hadn't applied for a mortgage, it would have gone on for a lot longer. I wouldn't have known anything about it."

Bennett Arron's tips to prevent ID fraud

Check your credit report regularly.Buy a shredder and use to destroy documents containing personal information before throwing them out.Put the receiver down on so-called telephone surveys asking anything about your personal financial circumstances.Delete e-mails asking you to confirm your identity or provide passwords - they are scams.Always keep your debit and credit cards in sight in shops and restaurants.Never divulge your card PINs to anyone.Be very careful when shopping online - only shop with eputable companies and always use Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode and if you havent enrolled in either, ask your bank.Buy and install anti-spyware software for your computerDon't leave all this until your identity is stolen

02 September 2005 © Moneyextra.com

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