Can utility collect debt with my personal information on the account?

[ricky6991]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Rhode Island

Hello, Verizon recently hit my credit report with a bill. This bill is not mine so i called them and spoke with fraud, recovery department(reports to credit) and was instructed i had to prove where i was living when the bill was opened in 2009-2017. This was 8-9 years ago, i have no way of proving my rental residency at that time. during this time i have actually had verizon services at different location than the one in question(not good enough). I was then instructed to make a police report. The issue with that is Verizon will not provide me with any paperwork that has my SSN attached to the acct. Verizon said they do not have a SSN listed on there acct information. How would i file for ID theft when there is not SSN listed on the bill? my ID has not been stolen by anyone. Verizon instructed me they only linked me to that specific bill because my name and the same address was on another verizon account that did actually have my ssn on it. so, verizon had a bill with no information attached to it except for a name(no middle) and and address. IMO, they commited fraud. they searched for any other accounts with that same address and took the SSN from that 2nd acct(mine) and reported it to agency. The 2 accounts are completely separate and unfair for them to use my SSN on a bill that is not mine. even if the address and name is the same one i had long time ago.

my question is, am i, the consumer, responsible for proving my innocence to verizon by chasing down documents from 9 years ago?

or, is verizon responsible with proving the bill is really mine before reporting it to agency and trying to collect on it?

I have actually spoken with the exectutive Chief operations officer for Verizon because an email i sent them regarding my treeatment. He has agreed with me that this is an unfair situation because the bill in question does not have a ssn on it. However, if they were to remove the bill from my credit report i had to do a full police report and ID theft report.

I do not understand how a company can try to collect a debt that has no personally identifying information with the bill. there are a million other people who share my name, how are they to know it was me to start and report it.

 

[Zigner]

A bill for a debt that was incurred 8-9 years ago shouldn't show up on your credit report to begin with. Have you disputed it with the reporting agency?

 

[ricky6991]

A bill for a debt that was incurred 8-9 years ago shouldn't show up on your credit report to begin with. Have you disputed it with the reporting agency?

i have disputed... the debt said it was closed in 4/2017. account was opened in 2009. so they have years after 2017. either way the debt doesnt belong to me and the debt doesnt have my ssn on it so how are they able to try dispute if its my debt or not.

 

[Zigner]

i have disputed... the debt said it was closed in 4/2017. account was opened in 2009. so they have years after 2017. either way the debt doesnt belong to me and the debt doesnt have my ssn on it so how are they able to try dispute if its my debt or not.

Somebody's not being truthful. If they didn't have your SS#, then it wouldn't be on your credit report.

 

[ricky6991]

Somebody's not being truthful. If they didn't have your SS#, then it wouldn't be on your credit report.

uhh sucks everyone says that... its very logical statement. however, i was told by verizon they got my ssn off another acct i had.(real one). the acct on my credit report does not have a ssn on it at all. It was only reported to me because i am from the same state and have same name on file. i was literally told this by a rep. this is why so frustrating. they are telling me its not my debt but saying i still have to prove not my debt. i thought they were responsible with proving the debt was mine before anything else?

i really want to get an attorney but i dont want to waste money either. at this point i am more pissed an want some sort of accountability from them. of course i want debt gone also. the executive i have been speaking with pulled the debt off my report for 30 days cause he believes me but said it would be put back on if we dont resolve it before then.

 

[LdiJ]

uhh sucks everyone says that... its very logical statement. however, i was told by verizon they got my ssn off another acct i had.(real one). the acct on my credit report does not have a ssn on it at all. It was only reported to me because i am from the same state and have same name on file. i was literally told this by a rep. this is why so frustrating. they are telling me its not my debt but saying i still have to prove not my debt. i thought they were responsible with proving the debt was mine before anything else?

i really want to get an attorney but i dont want to waste money either. at this point i am more pissed an want some sort of accountability from them. of course i want debt gone also. the executive i have been speaking with pulled the debt off my report for 30 days cause he believes me but said it would be put back on if we dont resolve it before then.

This is what I despise about collections.

A creditor can have absolutely zero chance of suing for a debt and winning, but all they have to do is send the account to collections, whether they have the right person or not, whether the debt is valid or not, and screw up someone's credit enough that they might actually pay the bill, even when its not theirs...and creditors do that ALL the time. The bigger the company, the more often they do it.

On top of that, going after the creditor in court, for the damages they caused by their actions, is generally not economically viable.

I have one of those myself hanging out there. I turned in a rental car, they inspected it, they signed off on it as being ok. 8 hours later they called me and tried to claim that I had damaged the car seriously enough that it shouldn't have even been driven.

I basically told them to pound sand, but to put it in writing. I then called my insurance company and they said "oh heck no do not even allow a claim to be placed". I got a letter from the car rental people with a bill for $400.00 (yeah, so damaged that it should not have been driven?) telling me that either I coughed up my insurance info, or they would send me to collections and ban me from ever renting from them, ever again. I responded with what my insurance company told me to say.

Banning me from renting from then ever again isn't a problem because I will NOT rent from them ever again...but that thing is hanging out there in collections putting a little black mark on my credit. I will NOT pay it out of principle.

 

[ricky6991]

This is what I despise about collections.

A creditor can have absolutely zero chance of suing for a debt and winning, but all they have to do is send the account to collections, whether they have the right person or not, whether the debt is valid or not, and screw up someone's credit enough that they might actually pay the bill, even when its not theirs...and creditors do that ALL the time. The bigger the company, the more often they do it.

On top of that, going after the creditor in court, for the damages they caused by their actions, is generally not economically viable.

I have one of those myself hanging out there. I turned in a rental car, they inspected it, they signed off on it as being ok. 8 hours later they called me and tried to claim that I had damaged the car seriously enough that it shouldn't have even been driven.

I basically told them to pound sand, but to put it in writing. I then called my insurance company and they said "oh heck no do not even allow a claim to be placed". I got a letter from the car rental people with a bill for $400.00 (yeah, so damaged that it should not have been driven?) telling me that either I coughed up my insurance info, or they would send me to collections and ban me from ever renting from them, ever again. I responded with what my insurance company told me to say.

Banning me from renting from then ever again isn't a problem because I will NOT rent from them ever again...but that thing is hanging out there in collections putting a little black mark on my credit. I will NOT pay it out of principle.

thats crazy, this is not fair scenerio... because i used to live at the address that was simply enough info to match my credit report. no ssn or anything but because address was same as i had as previous address on my report then they were allowed to add it i guess.