Here is the strange answer:
Credit bureaus have used automated processes to deny identity theft blocks—but that does not mean those automatic denials were lawful.
Federal regulators have found credit reporting companies maintaining policies that automatically declined identity theft blocks when an account met certain overbroad disqualifying criteria. The problem was that those criteria were not sufficiently tailored to support the individualized determination required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
That distinction is important.
Automation itself is not evil. Credit bureaus handle enormous amounts of information, and automated systems can make complicated processes faster and more consistent.
The problem comes when a shortcut replaces the judgment the law requires.
An automated system does not know whether you are honest. It does not know whether you opened the account. It simply applies whatever rules it was given.
So you can receive an extremely official-looking letter suggesting that your identity theft claim was wrong or even misleading when the real question may be:
Did anybody actually make an individualized decision about what happened to me?
That is why I tell identity theft victims not to confuse an authoritative-looking conclusion with proof that the conclusion is correct.
A system can follow its rules perfectly and still be wrong about the human being standing on the other side of those rules.
For the full explanation, see:
https://www.cardozalawcorp.com/blog/i-reported-identity-theft-do-they-think-i-m-lying-.cfm
