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.

  • bustrpoindextr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    When she disputed the file with credit bureaus, parts were removed simply because certain creditors had gone out of business. Others, however, didn’t get scrubbed from her history until they aged off—which typically takes around seven years.

    Turns out not so much

    • notepass@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      How the fuck? That sounds illegal. How can you be held liable for others people bullshit?

      • Signtist@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Because it’s a hell of a lot easier to hold poor people liable for other people’s bullshit than it is to hold rich people liable for not honoring fraud reports. One can afford a lawyer, and knows the other can’t.

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        Because credit agencies aren’t related to the government. They’re literally just companies that made up arbitrary systems and convinced banks to go along with it

    • Birdie@thelemmy.club
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      1 year ago

      They’ll take off debts from active companies if you have a police report, because I’ve had that done when my identity was stolen.