SIVACRACY.NET

The real problem is that the banks and finance companies have become mills and mechanized every step of the process. Just twenty years ago a real human being would have physically examined a credit app and made a decision. Today, data entry clerks punch in the info as it flies past them and an artificial intelligence makes the credit granting decision.

There are worse things that can happen. I have a friend whose checking account was looted when someone printed checks with his account number on them. Mind you, the fraudster did not use my friends name and address on the checks; he used another name and address with my friend's account number. The bank cleared the bogus checks anyway. All the bank does is read the account number and check for funds available. Such is the wondrous achievement of one-day automatic check clearing that the banks have pushed so hard to achieve, all in the name of cost effectiveness and efficiency.

A credit monitoring service of the variety that AmEx offers is probably your best line of defense. Through it one receives immediate notification of new lines of credit, changes in credit, incorrect spellings of your name, new addresses with your name and social security number, etc. At least, you can mount a vigorous defense as soon as you find out something is amiss.