TV PRESENTER WHO SCOFFED AT OUTCRY OVER BANK DATA LEAKS HAS HIS ACCOUNT RIPPED OFF
January 9th 2008 00:16
Boing Boing reported that Jeremy Clarkson, a presenter for Top Gear on British and Australian TV, wrote a newspaper editorial that accused privacy activists of being hysterical over giant data-leaks (such as the British government repeatedly losing CDs bearing the financial details for 25 million households). To prove that identity theft wasn't a big deal, he included his bank account details in the article.
Whereupon someone promptly began making fraudulent withdrawals from his account.
Clarkson, 47, writing in his column in the Sunday Times, decried the furore last year after CDs disappeared containing the banking details of 7 million families.
But the Guardian reported that earlier this week he told readers he had opened his bank statement to find a direct debit had been set up in his name and GBP500 taken out of his account.
"The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again," he said. "I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake."
"Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy."
Meanwhile, in Australia, repeats of Top Gear topped SBS TV ratings last week with 503,000 viewers. After appearing on Top Gear on Saturday night, Clarkson then featured in Sunday night’s, Who Do You Think You Are?
On Monday night Clarkson and mates featured in a Top Gear Polar Special which drew 1 million viewers across the five metro markets for SBS.
- From MediaBlab
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