"But there's also some onus on banks, credit card companies and other lenders to make sure they're lending to actual customers and not thieves." 

Isn't the above the most telling part of this article? "Some onus" on the banks who are lending money? Why is the full onus not on banks and lenders to undertake due diligence on who they are actually lending to rather than expecting law abiding consumers to pick up the pieces after they have been defrauded?

Seems to me as though the banks either wrote the laws on this or simply don't care about who they lend to.