Here we go again. States around the country, along with many consumer advocate groups are "warning" us about the dangers of identity theft. While that part may be good for heightening consumer awareness, the anecdote proposed is potentially a consumer’s worst nightmare. At the same time, these new "credit freeze" proposals are a dream come true for the recently legitimized loan-sharkers.

If you freeze your credit, you become the prey for the HSBCs and the Capital Ones of the world -- the subprime lenders. Subprimes "legitimately" charge higher interest rates to those who do not otherwise qualify for loans using conservative (outdated and racially biased) standards. Even worse, you become sweet-meat for the emerging pay-day loans market! Yes, that’s what the credit freeze can do for you.

On the other hand, freezing your credit makes it difficult for a thief to steal your identity. But, suppose instead of you and the thief getting locked out of your house, there was a way to just lock out the thief? Well, currently, there is a way to accomplish this but it requires a paper-trail and a few more man-hours than credit bureaus and the businesses that support them consider profitable. A loan in a minute, a scanned signature, and a legal assistant with a rubber stamp closes the deal a lot faster these days and with automated computer systems, there are a lot more of these deals to garner!

Suppose, someBODY intervened in the decisioning process like they used to do? Suppose instead of an uneducated minimum wage clerk greeting you on the phone or in person to deny your loan because your credit score retrieved a month ago was one point below the cut-off, you actually spoke with a knowledgeable loan officer who could tell you about the company’s loan products that fit your needs? Suppose your interaction with your creditor was not via an automated email because you policed your credit file and initiated a dispute over erroneous information? Suppose your job was your credit, but that luxury of credit didn’t come with twice the interest rate because you chose to freeze your credit file?

The credit bureaus want to get off easy by dismissing anybody that seeks to correct erroneously reported data. People that have an issue to correct may require human intervention which costs more than automated systems. That is all the "credit freeze" is about from a credit bureau’s perspective. They do not want to exclude consumers from obtaining credit, but for every person that chooses to keep their data factual, there are hundreds more ready to line up for credit that haven’t fallen victim to error or false reporting.

All the credit bureaus have to do to add some balance to their technological advances (adopted strictly for the purpose of greed) is to merely request "proof" from creditors that a debt is valid before they eagerly slander a consumer’s name. Of course that would require that the credit bureaus hire humans again, wouldn’t it?

Since the solution is so simple, it is mind-boggling that our government can’t request and enforce such a small change in the name of balance. If I were stupid, I’d call this incompetence on the part of our government and big businesses, but since I’m not, I’ll call it the government and business coalition’s most brilliant calculation! Recently, even the universities have come under fire for accepting kick-backs from the legitimized loan sharks sponsoring school loans.

Demand more! If your government won’t stand up to illegal slander of your name by the businesses that consider a credit report the Bible and your credit score the equivalent of God’s judgment, then why should you bother to ask that businesses for credit? You’re probably better off going back to the mom and pops shops in your own community that appreciate your business. You certainly won’t need to consider freezing your credit when dealing with legitimate businesses! Legitimate businesses would demand truthfulness in their analysis of credit-worthiness. Truthfulness CANNOT come from one-sided electronic forms acceptable only from the business aiming to slander.

Our governments, both federal and state, due to their close ties to the businesses that profit from your fear, won’t bother to stand up for you because a computer model has replaced any semblance of human capacity in making decisions.

What can your state really do to alleviate this one-sided scoring? Credit freezing is not the answer!