I watched the Real Hustle program tonight on BBC3 and I think the BBC have gone beyond the bounds of decency, in arranging for someone's house to be broken into.

If you haven't seen the program, it features 3 con artists who carry out real life scams to demonstrate how people can be ripped off. The idea is to educate us so that we won't fall for them ourselves. The victims are real people who fall for the real scams, but afterwards they are told what has happened, they get their money/property back and they agree to appear on the program. However, in tonight's program they entered someone's private property without the occupier's permission. first they obtained one of his bank statements, presumably by rifling through his dustbins (I missed the first minute or so); so that they could steal his identity. They then used this to make some sort of ID card. when the occupier had gone out for a while,one of the hustlers (a woman) called out a locksmith, claiming to have been locked out of her house, and used the fake ID to convince him that she was actually the occupier. He then picked the lock for her and she paid using a dodgy cheque which would not clear. She then proceeded to empty the house of some valuables. The idea of course was to teach people to be careful of ID theft, and how easy someone could get into your house this way. When the occupier got back he was obviously quite distressed when he discovered that his house had been burgled, and then looked quite relieved when he found out the real situation.

I felt quite angry that the BBC would allow one of their program makers to go this far. One of the other hustlers actually made a comment during the program that victims of burglary sometimes do not feel the same about living in their house anymore, because it is such a traumatic event and an invasion of privacy. So how do they know that this particular guy is not going to be permanently affected by this? He might have agreed to appear on the program, but he cannot exactly say after the event 'but I would prefer if you did not break into my house and steal my valuables'. It is one thing to scam someone in the street or in a pub, but quite another to abuse their house in this way.
I have made an official complaint to the BBC. I will let you know what their comments are.

What do you think?