My DW got a collection letter in the mail today for an old electric bill that her mother opened in her name. This happened years after my DW and myself were married and my DW never gave her permission to do this. Over a year ago my wife found out about this and contacted this electric company and told them that this was not her residence and has never lived there. They told her that she would have to file a police report and fax them a copy of it. Not wanting to get her mom in trouble and not wanting to go through the trouble of having to prove her innocence when it should be the electric companies problem to prove or disprove this, she never bothered with it. So here we are now with a collection that is absolutely a case of Identity theft but now it has to be taken care of or she faces the risk of being sued. We live off my income only so she doesn't have any wage that could potentially be garnished but nonetheless I'm trying to build her credit to and a judgment wouldn't help in this matter. I personally don't care and I really don't think my DW does either whether or not her mom gets in trouble for this or not. She ran an electric bill up we'll over a thousand dollars in my wife's name without permission and without any regard to the consequences it would have on my wife's credit so I don't care if this comes back to bite her in the butt or not.
Just want to know what steps should be taken now. DV? Direct Dispute? Is it really our responsibility to file a police report to prove her innocence? Or is it their job to get to the bottom of this since we had nothing to do with any of this?
Since it is in your wifes name it will be up to you (her) to prove it is indeed identity theft.
A DV isn't going to help since her name is on the account. A direct dispute probably wouldn't either as it would be her word against their records. It all hinges on the fact that her name and SSN were used without her knowledge or permission. And that is fraud and/or identity theft.
How can a company continue to say its verified your account even though you've continued to send them all the necessary documents supporting your identity theft, police report, identity theft affividavit and even a letter for. The IRS verifying that your information was stolen.
