Identity Theft
After watching yet another FreeCreditReport.com ad with the catchy slacker jingle, I had a minor revelation.
When did it become my responsibility to make sure that when a bank is loaning someone money, or when a credit card company is activating a credit card, that their security measures don’t allow someone to impersonate me?
It’s time for one of my patented bad analogies…
Imagine if a woman knocks on my door claiming to be Eva Longoria.
For the sake of argument, her husband Tony Parker does not exist.
She proceeds to use her charms to ask me to loan her $1,000. Being completely smitten, and with my penis ruling my life (yet again), I wilingly give her the money.
Can I sue the real Eva Longoria for $1,000 afterwards? Nope. I have no legal grounds to sue her!
So why then should consumers be forced to monitor their credit reports — which are records maintained by a cabal of banks and credit institutions that we had no real visibility in to until fairly recently — just in case the ever-omniscient banks and credit card companies fail to check I.D. any better than the bouncer at the local watering hole? After all, don’t they claim that they provide for secure transactions? And yet they can’t even figure out who is really applying for a credit card or mortgage?
C’mon people, are we really that stupid as a society?
One Response to “Identity Theft”
1 David 15 February 2008 @ 12:20 am
You make good points.
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