Yes. 99% of the time “identity theft” means a huge company cut corners on their security policies and wants us to subsidize their negligence. Every so often there are cases like that guy who pretended to be his former coworker for decades but they’re rare enough that they make the news internationally. Most of the time it used to be things like instant credit applications where they didn’t “slow” purchases with ID checks.
The good news is that companies have lost the presumption of competence there. In the 80s if a company said they’d confirmed that an applicant was you using your SSN, a lot of people would falsely believe that was sufficient but by now they’re not going to get far if they sue you unless they can provide better evidence because everyone knows huge breaches have happened many times.
The good news is that companies have lost the presumption of competence there. In the 80s if a company said they’d confirmed that an applicant was you using your SSN, a lot of people would falsely believe that was sufficient but by now they’re not going to get far if they sue you unless they can provide better evidence because everyone knows huge breaches have happened many times.