[tolmasky]

The problem with what you're proposing is that, as far as I understand, the real "consequences" for things like identity theft end up being intangibles like "time" and "annoyance" or "credit score". I don't think you'll actually be out $1000, the bank will just reverse it or it will be covered under some sort of insurance or something. Many times its just people taking out fraudulent loans under your name (vs. directly stealing money from you), so it gets handled entirely "digitally" and you experience no long term financial harm. Because of that, no one ends up "angry" at the bank, since what they lost was a week in "hassle".

[flatline]

Except that it can take months or years for the affected individual to clear up their credit record. And they may still end up on the hook for some of that debt. There is a direct and immediate impact on the individual in terms of debt against them and whatever credit reporting occurs on that debt. There is more distant impact on the lenders to eventually eat the losses - which in aggregate are in fact quite large - but no real impact to the lender’s reputation.

[cheriot]

It's worth distinguishing between the lenders and the credit bureaus. The latter cause much of the pain around identity theft afaik.

[ryanlol]

>Except that it can take months or years for the affected individual to clear up their credit record

In what scenario could this take years? Honestly anything beyond a month sounds pretty unlikely unless your identity was abused for an extended period (as in by a family member or such), and even then I don't see how.

As far as I understand the process for getting fraudulent accounts removed from credit reports typically takes less than a week.

[pmiller2]

Bullshit.

I had a fraudulent charge on my bank account via a “demand draft” (essentially a check without my signature). Yes, I had to spend significant time resolving the issue: going to the bank, having them insist they needed to close my account and reopen a new one, plus changing all my ACH drafts. But, I was very angry with the bank, because their proposed solution caused me hassle and doesn’t protect me from whatever attack vector compromised my account. They would not let me have them refuse to honor such instruments without prior authorization, either.

And, this was over a $40 charge. Had it been $4000, I wouldn’t have been any less angry with them for failing to protect me.

[tolmasky]

I think there might have been some sort of misunderstanding in my post. I’m explaining a phenomenon I see: people aren’t generally angry with their bank over identity fraud, and that makes holding them accountable difficult. I don’t disagree they share much of the blame, just trying to point out how non-HN people see things. While you may very well be pissed with your bank, I think the general response to your story is “relief” at getting the money back and “anger” at the criminal. Again, I am not implying this is who they should be angry at, just who I see them get angry at. So, step one is convincing others to have the same response as you if the goal is to hold them responsible.

[chefandy]

'Reverse it' often isn't exactly that simple, or even an option, depending on the method of transfer.