&gt; In what case would you be able to fool Prosper or LendingClub but not a traditional credit card company? Couldn&#x27;t they just adopt similar lending standards?<p>Traditional credit card lending standards are adopted because the issuer <i>is</i> the lender, and directly bears the default risk. On a peer-to-peer service, the money being lent is Other People&#x27;s Money, and Other People bear the default risk. The incentive, then, is to leave it to those Other People to set lending standards that will protect their money.