My identity wasn't stolen! You gave a loan/credit card/whatever to someone and didn't verify who they were. How is your organization not doing the proper work a "theft" of my identity? I'm not involved and I don't want to be!
Example: Someone opens a bank account using your information. That's fraud. Someone lied to the bank, and the bank believed them. That's the bank's problem. But by pointing at you and saying "Your identity was stolen" (using the term "stolen" to make it seem like this is similar to the theft of a physical object), it suddenly seems like it's your problem.
I agree that it's misleading, but have to concede that whoever first came up with that term must have been an expert in framing and spin. There are few words that so effectively distort the discussion as "identity theft".
But it is the bank, it should be! When a bank is robbed, its clients aren't the victims. The bank is. The clients aren't giving money to the bank for nothing in return; what they get in return is assurance of safety and availability (otherwise, that would be a loan, not a deposit). Spinning the failure to deliver on that obligation as the client's problem is indeed great PR work.
Via https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fraud: The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
Legally speaking
> Fraud must be proved by showing that the defendant's actions involved five separate elements:
> (1) a false statement of a material fact ["I am John Doe"],
> (2) knowledge on the part of the defendant that the statement is untrue [they are not John Doe],
> (3) intent on the part of the defendant to deceive the alleged victim [they want money],
> (4) justifiable reliance by the alleged victim on the statement [bank credit approves access based on identity], and
> (5) injury to the alleged victim as a result [bank loses customer money].
[1]previous HN comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15657887
I'd like to see a startup or non-profit that automates libel civil lawsuits against the reporting agencies. At least then maybe we'd get some responsibility from them.
But if some economy of scale could be provided in filing these lawsuits, like those boilerplate will in a box products, then the business of credit reporting in its current form may be made non-viable.
I'll have a stab at coining the new word.
The concept is referring to attempted or successful deceit of the bank. Let's take the Latin word for deceit, fraudem, and modernize it so it won't sound so quaint. I think that "fraud" would do.
Impersonation.