>Except that it can take months or years for the affected individual to clear up their credit record In what scenario could this take years? Honestly anything

>Except that it can take months or years for the affected individual to clear up their credit record In what scenario could this take years? Honestly anything beyond a month sounds pretty unlikely unless your identity was abused for an extended period (as in by a family member or such), and even then I don't see how. As far as I understand the process for getting fraudulent accounts removed from credit reports typically takes less than a week.