The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to the Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for "creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories." Today we found at least one case of non-fiction.



While mapping street addresses from recently submitted e-mail scams, we came across one address that matched both an actual location and company in the UK. That piqued our interest and examining further, we discovered that the company details were legitimate. We called the company to see if they were aware of the identity theft. It turns out that they were and they have contacted the police regarding the matter. (We'll leave them as anonymous while the case is being investigated.)

The UK phone number in the scam e-mail was a "find me anywhere" number in the 70 range. These numbers start with the +44 country code of the UK, but they can ring almost anywhere in the world - in this case, probably Nigeria. We suppose that the same could easily be done with VoIP numbers as well.

We're interested in just how many other cases exist where the details of the scam have been stolen instead of invented. Does anyone have other known examples?