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How do I prove to bill collectors that I am not responsible for fraudulent debts?

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Host: How do I prove to bill collectors that I am not responsible for fraudulent debts?

Linda Sherry: One of the main ways that people find out about identity theft or that they have become victims of identity theft is when a bill collector comes calling and a bill collector may call and say, they are collecting on some debt you never heard of. Well, that can be tough to prove that it's not you, but since you are a victim of identity theft, the law is on your side. What you have to do is collect all the information you can from the bill collector, both about the bill collector itself and also about the original debt that they are trying to collect on. Get as much information about that; contact the original company and tell the bill collector on that initial contact that you are victim; you have been victim of identity and so this is very likely a situation with ID theft.

You can also ask the bill collector to stop harassing you and you could do that by writing a letter, sending a Registered Receipt email.

Expert: Linda Sherry

Director, National Priorities

http://www.consumer-action.org

Email: editor@consumer-action.org

Linda Sherry, Consumer Action’s director of national priorities and one of the organization’s chief spokespersons, joined the San Francisco-based national consumer education and advocacy group in 1994 from a background as a weekly newspaper reporter.Consumer Action (www.consumer-action.org), founded in 1971, has a national reputation for free multilingual consumer education on personal finance More »