The Nation’s Favourite ‘Fakes’ Revealed

‘Ben Dover’, ‘James Bond’ and ‘Al Coholic’ all make list

According to new research from price comparison website thecomparisons.com, the famous faces most likely to be applying for online car insurance quotes are Bob Marley, David Beckham and Marilyn Monroe – despite only one of them being alive!

Using a data resource of more than eight million people across the UK, thecomparisons.com has produced a definitive chart of the fake names Brits use when filling in online forms – such as car insurance quotes or mailing list applications – to help it better understand customer behaviour.

Topping the list was the pseudonym ‘Joe Bloggs’, which accounted for 48% of identifiable fake entries monitored by thecomparisons.com during a one month period. Coming second was ‘James Bond’ with 11% of entries and in third place came ‘Fred Bloggs’ with 10%. In joint fourth place came ‘Bob Marley’ and ‘Ben Dover’ with 7% each.

The most popular fake female name emerged as ‘Marilyn Monroe’, accounting for 1% of all fake names entered during the month.

Just outside of the top ten were the suspect-sounding ‘Al Coholic’, ‘Jock Strap’, various members of the Simpsons family and several Star Wars characters including ‘Darth Vader’ and ‘Jabba the Hut’.

The top ten fake names
1) Joe Bloggs – 48%
2) James Bond – 11%
3) Fred Bloggs – 10%
4) Bob Marley – 7%
5) Ben Dover – 7%
6) Jo Bloggs – 6%
7) Bob Builder – 4%
8) Fred Flintstone – 3%
9) David Beckham – 2%
10) Marylyn Monroe – 2%

The findings are based on data provided by thecomparisons.com, monitored during November 2007, with the suspected fake names are automatically filtered out of more than 700,000 entries.

Chris McDonald, director of thecomparisons.com, said: “It’s fascinating to see the false names people use online, and it’s something a few of us have been guilty of at some stage. However, it’s worth remembering, price comparison websites are all about giving the customer added value and saving them huge amounts of time, and using false names will only make this process take longer than it needs to.”