"Identity theft" seems very much a cop out and what I would call a "nomenclature scam" (new term, courtesy of me) which places the onus of security on individua

"Identity theft" seems very much a cop out and what I would call a "nomenclature scam" (new term, courtesy of me) which places the onus of security on individual customers, instead of on the financial institutions that would be much better equipped to prevent scams. It should not be possible for anyone to open up a new line of credit remotely, without physically showing up at bank office where they will be properly identified. Any such attempt should trigger a process which will (through a different channel) verifiably notify the person who is purportedly attempting to open a line of credit. Furthermore, I would personally like credit bureaus to let me turn on an optional setting that tells financial institutions that they must card, photograph, get a video of, fingerprint, and get a DNA sample from anyone who attempts to open a line of credit in my name. There are other ways in which banks tend to make losing money way too easily. I should be able to lock down an account or a given sum of money in an account that would prevent that money from being transferred anywhere unless I first show up at a bank office, am properly identified, and remove that lock. Ideally bank officers would be forced to ask me a few basic questions that could help me realize that I may be falling for a scam. They could also inform me of the most common and newest forms of scams before finalizing the account unlocking process. If I so choose, I want to be able to NOT have the option of being to clear out my accounts through online banking sessions. On a different note, why are bank and credit card account statements so nearly useless in identifying where one's money is transferred? It's high time to upgrade ancient banking networks! Banks should expand the amount of space available for describing each transaction, along with providing the recipient's account number, financial institution name and ID , state/province and country. As it is, I often have trouble identifying many legitimate purchases I made, much less potentially fraudulent transactions.