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ABC News link to story: One woman named Jessica Davis is a sex offender. Another woman, also named Jessica Davis, but two years and two days apart in age, has her MySpace profile pulled because of that similarity.
It may not seem like a big deal-- yeah, yeah, so her MySpace profile got pulled. But what about when they report this to the local authorities? What if being mistaken for a sex offender gets you a file? What if it hurts her business, or her career chances?
Some lawyer is going to get filthy rich before this all ends.
So, those of you who know me IRL know that I have an exceptionally common first name, and the most common last name in the English-speaking world.
(For those who want to play along at home, here's the link to the Social Security Death Index. This lists Americans with Social Security numbers (so, no one before a certain age) who have died. I have a name-twin, someone with my name, born the same day as me. She's been dead for three years now. )
It's funny when people call me looking for their friend from high school, who has likely married and changed her name. It's annoying when people call me trying to collect a debt for someone else.
But if it's going to keep me from winding up with my name on the sex offender list through a stupid-ass decision like "oh, this person with a common name must be the SAME person as this other one whose birthday is 2 years and 2 days different" then I need to get on with changing that.
When did the Crazy Years start, again?
It may not seem like a big deal-- yeah, yeah, so her MySpace profile got pulled. But what about when they report this to the local authorities? What if being mistaken for a sex offender gets you a file? What if it hurts her business, or her career chances?
Some lawyer is going to get filthy rich before this all ends.
So, those of you who know me IRL know that I have an exceptionally common first name, and the most common last name in the English-speaking world.
(For those who want to play along at home, here's the link to the Social Security Death Index. This lists Americans with Social Security numbers (so, no one before a certain age) who have died. I have a name-twin, someone with my name, born the same day as me. She's been dead for three years now. )
It's funny when people call me looking for their friend from high school, who has likely married and changed her name. It's annoying when people call me trying to collect a debt for someone else.
But if it's going to keep me from winding up with my name on the sex offender list through a stupid-ass decision like "oh, this person with a common name must be the SAME person as this other one whose birthday is 2 years and 2 days different" then I need to get on with changing that.
When did the Crazy Years start, again?
