I wrote my comment on the premise that "why can't a cardholder lie and claim they never accrued the debt [on a specific card]". If an investigator analyzes all purchases from the card and finds many of the purchases were things you took possession of, or hotels you stayed at, etc, that's evidence against the liar who falsely claimed to be a victim of so-called 'identity theft'. It's very hard to launder purchases without some trail leading back to you.