Governments keep telling us ID checks will make the internet safer. Here is what an ID check actually did for a woman in Pennsylvania. Cash App demanded Social Security numbers to stop fraud. Hers leaked in a data breach, a scammer opened an account with it, and the police arrested her for his crime. She spent three nights in jail. Cash App now refuses to show her the account because she can’t prove it’s hers, which is exactly what she has been telling them. Every ID check builds another vault of stolen identities waiting to happen. The more of them we’re forced through, the easier fraud gets, and the people paying for it are the ones who did everything they were told.