When Axton Betz-Hamilton set up her first utility bill at college, she soon realized something was very, very wrong.
It turned out she’d been a victim of identity theft—and it had destroyed her credit rating.
In 2001, when she was a 19-year-old student, Betz-Hamilton’s new utility provider demanded a $100 security deposit to turn on her service, citing her credit score.
“I thought it was because I didn’t have enough credit,” she told Fortune. But when a copy of her credit report turned up in her mailbox six weeks later, she learned the opposite was true.
Given that you require 3 step authorization just to access your bank, there is no reason credit card companies should be giving out credit cards so easily in this day and age based on name alone. Heck setting up an account for a phone is more secure than credit cards and I think what these companies are doing is intentional so they can legally ruin people and absolve themselves of any unethical behaviour.