Legally, they're 'financial institutions'

Signing up to any financial institution requires that certain ID documents be given over, so I included a copy of a credit card statement. The statement led the fraudster to believe that I had a certain amount of ability to borrow, which was correct at the time of the statement but not by the time they tried to use the info. So they very quickly made the noob mistake of trying to overdraw it buying overseas goods which were very much outside of my usual type of purchase, alerting the bank (and then me) within hours of starting their idiot spree. Obviously they also didn't have the 3-digit number from the back of the card. Took a little while but eventually I was found not liable for the borrowings.