Identity Theft Hurts

Why does identity theft happen?

My identity theft nightmare began for me when a small business owner, Earl Williams of “Xtreme Dreams”, a car stereo installation shop in Austell, Georgia fraudulently leased business equipment and opened business credit cards in my name.  He would max out the credit cards to their limits, but I would get the bills, collection letters and bad marks on my credit reports.

Unfortunately for those of us who play by the rules, the banks have a very low threshold to validate and verify your identity when you apply for a credit card.  It would irritate me to no end when I dealt with bank investigators; they wanted a notarized affidavit of forgery and copies of bills and my driver’s license when I was proving my identity to them.  Those banking stooges didn’t require that diligence from my identity thief when he applied for credit did they? 

Bank of America made the news on June 17, 2008 when their company offered and approved Bennett Christiansen a credit card with a limit of $600.  Bennett had no income, wasn’t a homeowner or a renter.  However, Bennett was able to complete the credit card application with his mother’s help.  Bennett needed his mother’s help because at the time, he was only five years old.  Bank of America gave Bennett a credit card, allegedly due to “human error in entering the information incorrectly into the system”.

Think that’s an isolated incident?  Ok.  From Fraudfacts.com , I submit the following:

“To illustrate, the following are some interesting reported cases illustrating the careful review and processing of pre-approved credit offers by overeager credit grantors:

Example #1:  A dog’s owner received a pre-approved credit offer in the name of his dog. Thinking the situation to be humorous, he decided to have some fun with it by completing and returning the acceptance form.

On the form, the man listed the dog’s full name as “Clifford J. Dawg”. He wrote that the dog’s mother’s name was “Pugsy Malone”, listed the dog’s employer as “The Pupperoni Factory”, and provided the dog’s Social Security number as “000-00-0000″.  The man even went so far as to write on the front of the application, “You are sending an application to a dog! Ha! Ha! Ha!”.

The result? “Clifford J. Dawg” was issued a platinum card with a credit limit of $1500 accepted worldwide.

Example #2:  In [a] similar, though unrelated case, “Monty the Shih-Tzu” reportedly received a credit line of $24,600.”

So to answer the question I posed: “How does identity theft happen”?  I don’t know, nor do I care.  I’m not a criminal and wouldn’t steal your identity for my personal gain.  I do know that banks and credit card companies lobby Senators and Representatives of the House to make credit easy to obtain.  I don’t favor either politcal party, but if you think the Democrat’s are looking out for the little people, you might want to read the hypertexted “lobby” link in the previous sentence. 

The credit card companies shanigans may soon get curbed.  On August 10th 2008, Nancy Trejos of the Washington Post reported that the credit card industry faces reforms.