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Several bank loans and store cards were taken out in my name using only my name, address and date of birth, in the UK. The same cynical business logic applies t

Several bank loans and store cards were taken out in my name using only my name, address and date of birth, in the UK. The same cynical business logic applies the world over: it's cheaper to clean up after the inevitable fraud than to implement proper identity checks. This calculus is of course aided by the fact that the detection of the fraud and the organising of the cleanup is taken care of entirely by the victim. "Victim", not "customer", because usually there is no business relationship between the company with the shitty identity checks and the person that has to live with the consequences. I recommend contacting the credit rating agencies and getting them to place a note on your record with a password, eg. [1]. Don't wait until someone "steals your identity". It's the only way to get these companies to do something resembling an actual identity check. Doing it after they've lent in your name (as the rating agencies suggest) rather defeats the object. [1] https://help.equifax.co.uk/EquifaxOnlineHelp/s/article/HowdoIaddaprotectivepasswordtomycreditreport https://help.equifax.co.uk/EquifaxOnlineHelp/s/article/Howdo...

Nextgrid 4y ago
The fact that the UK has this nasty concept of “credit history” helps with this, since now all that’s needed to take out credit is basic details to lookup the credit bureau profile and then they “vouch” for you. In countries where this doesn’t exist, obtaining credit requires providing proof of income (payslip, etc) to the lender which they verify. A mere name/address/date of birth might be enough to open inconsequential accounts such as loyalty cards, but will absolutely not get you credit - therefore the damage to identity theft victims is greatly reduced or even nullified. Bad payers are still penalised even without a credit bureau system by a register the government operates onto which a debtor is registered for a certain period after legal action by a lender (so this requires significant effort from the lender - you don’t get on this register because of a telecoms billing mishap for example). With regards to setting a password, I wouldn’t trust CRAs to enforce this. What you can do however is pay for CIFAS protective registration - it’s usually for victims or those at high risk of identity theft but there’s no legal requirement so anyone can pay the admin fee and get added to the register. Lenders check this during credit applications and this puts an instant block on any kind of automated approval and requires them to do further verification.
- jamiek88 4y ago
  You’d have to see it to believe it how easy and normal credit is over here in USA. Even coming from uk it surprised me. You can even buy tyres on tick. That only works because of low friction lending.
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b800h 4y ago
Lenders are "encouraged" to check the password. In your experience, how frequently do they do so?

Nextgrid 4y ago

The fact that the UK has this nasty concept of “credit history” helps with this, since now all that’s needed to take out credit is basic details to lookup the credit bureau profile and then they “vouch” for you. In countries where this doesn’t exist, obtaining credit requires providing proof of income (payslip, etc) to the lender which they verify. A mere name/address/date of birth might be enough to open inconsequential accounts such as loyalty cards, but will absolutely not get you credit - therefore the damage to identity theft victims is greatly reduced or even nullified. Bad payers are still penalised even without a credit bureau system by a register the government operates onto which a debtor is registered for a certain period after legal action by a lender (so this requires significant effort from the lender - you don’t get on this register because of a telecoms billing mishap for example). With regards to setting a password, I wouldn’t trust CRAs to enforce this. What you can do however is pay for CIFAS protective registration - it’s usually for victims or those at high risk of identity theft but there’s no legal requirement so anyone can pay the admin fee and get added to the register. Lenders check this during credit applications and this puts an instant block on any kind of automated approval and requires them to do further verification.

jamiek88 4y ago
You’d have to see it to believe it how easy and normal credit is over here in USA. Even coming from uk it surprised me. You can even buy tyres on tick. That only works because of low friction lending.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

b800h 4y ago

Lenders are "encouraged" to check the password. In your experience, how frequently do they do so?