Get Gephardt: South Jordan woman fights debt collection after thieves stole her identity

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — If you get hit by identity thieves, you could wind up with debts in your name that are not yours. A South Jordan woman says it happened to her, and now she is fighting debt collection for a bill that was never hers.

Sandra Webb has DirecTV at her home, but she got a collections notice demanding that she pay the DirecTV bill for someone else’s house in Tooele.

“(It) said that I owe them $360.74 on an account that had been defaulted on,” Webb said.

Webb said she is a victim of identity theft. Someone used her Social Security number to open a DirecTV account but then didn’t pay the bill.

“I immediately called the number on the bill and I told them this is not my bill,” she said.

That was two years ago, and she thought it was settled until recently when a collections notice showed up.

DirecTV told her she would need to prove the debt is not hers. They want her to email copies of her driver’s license and Social Security card. She said a police detective told her that was a horrible idea.

“He said, ‘Absolutely do not send that information,’” Webb said. “‘You never send a picture of your government ID in an email for any reason.’”

But when DirecTV refused to budge, Webb decided it was time to contact KSL.

This time, we reached out to DirecTV on her behalf — not through customer service, but through the corporate communication department. And we got into a bit of a back-and-forth.

DirecTV told us Webb would need to “provide them with an ID.” That is their “standard fraud process.”

So, we pressed.

“Why isn’t the onus on DirecTV?” we responded. “If DirecTV is going to send her to collections, do significant damage to her credit, why is she wrong in asking DirecTV to prove she’s responsible?”

With that, DirecTV seemed to have a change of heart. When we heard back from DirecTV again, they told us their “customer care folks have resolved the situation” and “it should be all taken care of.”

Webb confirmed with us the bill was finally waived. She hopes, this time, for good.