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You're getting angry at the second level cascade of absurdity. The first level is realizing that "Identity theft" is a bullshit cover-your-ass scheme invented

You're getting angry at the second level cascade of absurdity. The first level is realizing that "Identity theft" is a bullshit cover-your-ass scheme invented by banks and card networks to absolve themselves of responsibility for improperly securing their own systems. Consumer identities are never "stolen". Maybe a criminal gets to know some numbers associated with you. Then, the fraud protections of a bank are breached by a fraudster. Thats a crime between the fraudster and the bank, and it's really a crazy innovation to say the consumer is responsible for the loss in that situation.

dnm 10y ago
This. I can't believe how the media/government has completely bought into the fact that the creditor (bank) failed to do proper due diligence in order to verify who they are extending credit to. And to make it seem like it's the fault of the person being impersonated is absurd. SSN as a password was the single biggest banking failure ever committed, aside from what happened in the 2000's mortgage debacle.
- mindslight 10y ago
  The system runs on abstractions, which it inherently takes for granted as air-tight. Looking from inside the system, the abstraction of "identity" can never appear imperfect. So the observed behavior is described in terms of its internally-seen effects - an identity has been coopted by a bad actor, ergo it must have been stolen. I'm not endorsing the mislabeling, just explaining how it came about. Obviously sanity, sustainability, and individual freedom depend on pushing back against that system's prescriptions and "keeping it real".
CocaKoala 10y ago
There's a comedy sketch from some group that talks about exactly this phenomenon. "Your identity has been stolen, sir" "Uh, I don't believe it has. I'm me, and I always have been." "Well, no, somebody came in and said they were you, and then they took all your money." "And you believed them? That was foolish. It sounds like this is a bank robbery to me." "No, no, no. We didn't get robbed. You got robbed. They took your money." "But you gave it to them, right? Even though they weren't me. This still sounds like your screw up here." edit: Ah ha, I found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E

dnm 10y ago

This. I can't believe how the media/government has completely bought into the fact that the creditor (bank) failed to do proper due diligence in order to verify who they are extending credit to. And to make it seem like it's the fault of the person being impersonated is absurd. SSN as a password was the single biggest banking failure ever committed, aside from what happened in the 2000's mortgage debacle.

mindslight 10y ago
The system runs on abstractions, which it inherently takes for granted as air-tight. Looking from inside the system, the abstraction of "identity" can never appear imperfect. So the observed behavior is described in terms of its internally-seen effects - an identity has been coopted by a bad actor, ergo it must have been stolen. I'm not endorsing the mislabeling, just explaining how it came about. Obviously sanity, sustainability, and individual freedom depend on pushing back against that system's prescriptions and "keeping it real".

CocaKoala 10y ago

There's a comedy sketch from some group that talks about exactly this phenomenon. "Your identity has been stolen, sir" "Uh, I don't believe it has. I'm me, and I always have been." "Well, no, somebody came in and said they were you, and then they took all your money." "And you believed them? That was foolish. It sounds like this is a bank robbery to me." "No, no, no. We didn't get robbed. You got robbed. They took your money." "But you gave it to them, right? Even though they weren't me. This still sounds like your screw up here." edit: Ah ha, I found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E