At the weekend I was doing more stilts and balloons for a local event and was supposed to be doing a workshop as well (although the balloons were so popular and the crowds small due to weather I didnt do that). Because of the workshop I had a gazebo set up to run the workshop from, most of the time it was just a table and a banner reading Silly Simon across the front and nothing more. The first aiders on site saw the opportunity to get out of the rain and congregated under my gazebo. Upon seeing a lady with young children approach also looking for cover one of them introduced one of the team as Silly Simon and offered the opportunity to see him dance on the table, the lady in question responded with a comment something like, oh hello Silly Simon, Im Mrs Silly Simon, I think it was at that point they realised they werent going to get any money out of her, the other thing that helped to add to the moment is that fact that the person introduced as Silly Simon would have known it was my wife.
So what can we learn from this? Identity theft can happen anywhere, any time, but without careful planning and research you may get caught out sooner than you think.