Carwyn Roberts, from Leeds, had his wallet stolen on a Christmas night out in a bar more than three years ago.
Since then, dozens of fraudulent listings for high-value goods have appeared on Facebook Marketplace using his stolen identity.
Victims of those scams have directed their ire at him, wrongly 'outing' him online and even turning up in person to confront him.
There have also been fraudulent attempts to obtain loans and catalogue accounts in his name.
With no end in sight and no solution offered by Facebook or the police, Carwyn has been forced into a state of constant online monitoring and vigilance.
Find out more:'Where is he?'
Carwyn's stolen wallet contained bank cards that were swiftly cancelled and reissued after fraudulent payment attempts were made – but this was only the beginning of his problems.
The wallet also contained Carwyn's driving licence, which listed his former address at his mother's house in North Wales.
Since January 2020, a scammer in possession of the licence has repeatedly created Facebook accounts in Carwyn's name, with the location set to his mother’s home, posting high-value items for sale and asking for payment by bank transfer.
The scammer promises to send the items by post or courier. To convince potential buyers, he shows them an image of Carwyn's driving licence.
When the items don’t arrive, the buyers sometimes turn up at his mum’s home to confront him. She then has to explain that her son is another victim of the scam.
There have been eight such visits since 2020, while Carwyn is far away in Leeds, powerless to protect her.
One victim even posted a message on a Facebook community page of his mother's village, 'outing' him as a scammer, prompting local friends to come to his defence – but the furious woman could not be persuaded of his innocence.
Loan lies
The pair check Facebook Marketplace every day, looking for new sales posts within a small radius of his mother's home. When they find a fraudulent one, they report it to Facebook.
Carwyn told Which? that Facebook used to be good at removing these posts and profiles following his reports, but more recently it had stopped doing so.
Which? investigates
Carwyn shared a number of live fraudulent Facebook Marketplace listings, and a profile impersonating him.
The listings included cameras, games consoles and a drone, with a combined value of £1,800. Which? flagged these with Facebook's parent company, Meta, and it swiftly removed them and the underlying account, but offered no explanation as to why it ignored Carwyn's earlier reports.
We asked Meta what definitive steps it would take to prevent further impersonations of Carwyn on its platform, but it didn't respond.
West Yorkshire Police had previously closed its investigation in 2020; however, it reopened it at Carwyn's insistence following the recent online catalogue fraud.
A force spokesperson told us: 'When this matter was first reported to West Yorkshire Police in February 2020, enquiries were carried out in relation to banking information.
'A suspect could not be identified from those enquiries and further investigation was assessed as not being in the public interest, on the basis that the complainant had not suffered any financial loss and the victims of the fraud offences had reported the matters to their respective local forces.'
It added: 'Following further recent contact from the complainant, the investigating officer is continuing to make enquiries and will be updating him directly.
'Officers will also be liaising with North Wales Police in relation to safeguarding considerations at the address in their area.'
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/is-this-the-uks-longest-running-identity-theft-aAEfF5F0LZyB