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This article about a 1996 UFO scam appeared in Fortean Times, issue #96. I can't find any trace of its being mentioned on the forum before.
A London man is claiming one million pounds after presenting "proof" that he was abducted by aliens while fully insured against that very event. Joseph Carpenter, a 23-year-old electrician, said that he was struck by a strange beam of light while visiting Swindon (according to one foreign report, a UFO hot-spot) on 8 October 1996 with a UFO hunting group called "Majestic Twelve". He was videoed rising into the air and recovering later, bearing marks on his skin. The insurance was taken out for £100 with a firm called GRIP run by insurance broker Simon Burgess. Burgess says he is impressed with the supporting evidence a necessary part of the claim which included camcorder footage, witnesses and DNA samples taken from what he said was a claw found at the scene.
Burgess also claimed that X-Files star Gillian Anderson would be presenting the cheque to Mr Carpenter, but nothing of the sort happened. Astute Forteans soon smelled a rat -- not only was the story of an abducted ufologist too good to be true, but 'Joseph Carpenter' was the alias used by the alien Klaatu when he came to Earth in the 1951 SF film The Day The Earth Stood Still, besides being the name of the divinely-cuckolded father of a well-known person whose birth is celebrated on Christmas Day.
The scam was publicly exposed by Maurice Chittenden in the Sunday Times. 'Carpenter' is in fact Joe Tagliarini, an ex-courier and partner of Burgess and they cooked up the story to publicise their insurance scheme. Mark Birdsall, one of the editors of UFO Magazine, said he was present when they did this while waiting to be interviewed on a Central TV chat show in November. "Tagliarini was introduced as Joseph Carpenter. It probably started as a silly joke, but it has backfired," said Birdsall. The insurance industry had been aware of Burgess's 'jokes' before -- he once offered insurance against "pregnancy by immaculate conception" and was described by one source as an "unhelpful maverick". Using a different name, he once placed in Fortean Times notice of a "certified policy against alien abduction" with a "guarantee to pay out... subject to proof and evidence", but the advertisement was disguised as a sale of posters.
Sunday Times, 12 Jan 1997.
SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE: https://web.archive.org/web/19980216123423/http://www.forteantimes.com/artic/96/scam.html
A London man is claiming one million pounds after presenting "proof" that he was abducted by aliens while fully insured against that very event. Joseph Carpenter, a 23-year-old electrician, said that he was struck by a strange beam of light while visiting Swindon (according to one foreign report, a UFO hot-spot) on 8 October 1996 with a UFO hunting group called "Majestic Twelve". He was videoed rising into the air and recovering later, bearing marks on his skin. The insurance was taken out for £100 with a firm called GRIP run by insurance broker Simon Burgess. Burgess says he is impressed with the supporting evidence a necessary part of the claim which included camcorder footage, witnesses and DNA samples taken from what he said was a claw found at the scene.
Burgess also claimed that X-Files star Gillian Anderson would be presenting the cheque to Mr Carpenter, but nothing of the sort happened. Astute Forteans soon smelled a rat -- not only was the story of an abducted ufologist too good to be true, but 'Joseph Carpenter' was the alias used by the alien Klaatu when he came to Earth in the 1951 SF film The Day The Earth Stood Still, besides being the name of the divinely-cuckolded father of a well-known person whose birth is celebrated on Christmas Day.
The scam was publicly exposed by Maurice Chittenden in the Sunday Times. 'Carpenter' is in fact Joe Tagliarini, an ex-courier and partner of Burgess and they cooked up the story to publicise their insurance scheme. Mark Birdsall, one of the editors of UFO Magazine, said he was present when they did this while waiting to be interviewed on a Central TV chat show in November. "Tagliarini was introduced as Joseph Carpenter. It probably started as a silly joke, but it has backfired," said Birdsall. The insurance industry had been aware of Burgess's 'jokes' before -- he once offered insurance against "pregnancy by immaculate conception" and was described by one source as an "unhelpful maverick". Using a different name, he once placed in Fortean Times notice of a "certified policy against alien abduction" with a "guarantee to pay out... subject to proof and evidence", but the advertisement was disguised as a sale of posters.
Sunday Times, 12 Jan 1997.
SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE: https://web.archive.org/web/19980216123423/http://www.forteantimes.com/artic/96/scam.html