I've just been watching the excellent French tv programme C dans l'Air. Last night's was about identity theft and mistaken identity, featuring a man whose identity was stolen in 2001 and whose life has been destroyed as a result. He can no longer get a passport, open a bank account, get a phone line etc as the authorities don't know who is the correct holder of his name. He has been forced to move back in with his parents as it is the only way he can live his life. truly shocking.

(fortunately, the French authorities have finally started to take his case seriously and there may be a way out).

How about the following case of a man I knew in Serbia 10 years ago- equally shocking.

Bear in mind that this was just after NATO had bombed Belgrade, and international tensions were high. I went to stay with a couple in the hills outside Belgrade and spent a lovely weekend with them. He told me how he was unable to travel abroad, as he shared the same name, birth date and birthplace with a man who was wanted for war crimes. What's more, his father also had the same name as the fater of the wanted man.

He was a poet, and frequently travelled abroad to literary conferences, until one day, arriving in Nairobi for a poetry gathering, he was arrested by the border guards and held for 3 days as his name had flashed up on their computer. It was not until they had obtained clearance from the United Nations that this was not the same man that he was released.

So he thought it had all been cleared up. Wrong.

He was arrested a few months later on trying to enter Italy for a similar event. After another few days of contact with the UN it was again established that he was not the wanted man.

However, the Italian authorities spoke to him very sympathetically but recommended he change his name officially. Otherwise he would regularly find himself arrested every time he entered a foreign country.

He was not amused.

any other stories (however big or small) ?

As much as he might not want to -he should change his name.

I'm not going to say what industry he/she is in but I have a good friend who is fairly famous and a little drug charge and a 2 month sentence when young was always going to rear it's head at some stage as despite society and authorities saying once you have done your time they never let you forget it.

But a 3 letter change in the spelling of the name put paid to that. Fools the computers if done properly.