MovieChat Forums > Fletch (1985) Discussion > Fletch: 80s pioneer in identity theft

Fletch: 80s pioneer in identity theft


By the way, I charged the whole vacation to Mr. Underhill's American Express account. Want the number?

You are toast, my toasty friend.

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poor mr. underhill.



I'm with the Mattress Police. There are no tags on these mattresses.

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Not to split hairs, but I don't think that's technically identity theft. He didn't assume Mr Underhill's identity, just used his card. Just credit card fraud.

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More apt to say Fletch was a master at social engineering before most people even knew what that was.

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The meaning of THEFT is that the owner of something actually LOSES that something.

Who lost their identity here?

When you use completely IMAGINARY identities, that can't really be called 'theft', because there's no victim. Heck, all 'identities' are imaginary and artificial anyway, it's just that they've been 'entered into the system' in a certain way, that makes them supposedly somehow 'real'.

But when you think about it - a couple of strangers, who do not care about your consent, just LABEL you something, and that's supposed to be your whole identity for this incarnation..? ('Your parents' (two people who had sex) are effectively strangers when they do this, you haven't yet been acquainted with them yet)

Then a 'person' is created based on the child's 'registration', and this is used throughout the established system (most importantly, in banking), and this paper-'person' (or 'strawman', as some call it) is supposed to be somehow your identity.. although it's not even a living human being, like you).

Be careful when talking about 'identity theft' - this movie certainly doesn't contain any. There's some regular theft, using 'many different identities' (just because they haven't been 'registered' to the 'system', doesn't mean they're fundamentally any more wrong or unreal as identities, if you start thinking about it), and using someone else's credit card without their permission - there's also breaking and entering, destroying someone else's property, and so forth and so on, even attempted murder.

But no identity theft.

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Well, Fletch did say he used Ted Underhill's credit card on his trip to South America.

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