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US credit card companies do not do a lot of ID verification when opening accounts. I applied for a new CC last year entirely on-line, and had the new card in m
by drewg123 9y ago
US credit card companies do not do a lot of ID verification when opening accounts.
I applied for a new CC last year entirely on-line, and had the new card in my hands within a week. They never asked to verify my identity beyond my SSN / DOB / Address, which all seem likely to have been released in at least 3 breaches in the last few years. This is surprising to me, as I've been asked to show ID when opening a local bank account. To me this makes no sense: Why verify customers more stringently when they effectively loan you money than when you loan them money? I guess it may just have something to do with banking laws..
This is all just a long winded way to say that I think that credit card offers, by mail or web, are a problem. They cannot do any meaningful ID verification anymore, now that all info is essentially public. I think they need to partner with some agency that has a physical presence which can do verification of ID via government issued ID. Eg, a bank, merchant, etc, who can look at your driver license, passport, etc, and verify your identity. I suppose they are worried about adding too much friction.
- astura 9y agoBecause bank accounts have different (and stricter) anti-money laundering and KYC laws.
- drewg123 9y agoWhich, no offense to our government, is just stupid. I'm much more concerned about ID theft than I am about terrorism, which is the supposed motivation for the know your customer stuff.
- scott_s 9y agoI think those laws were originally designed for "normal" crime, as what-to-do-with-illict-money is a common problem for anything resembling organized crime.
- kiriakasis 9y agoIng. Direct ask for copy of your documents to be sent by mail
- rasz 9y agowhich you obtain by posting craigslist "$30/hour work at home" ad