(WXYZ) - Imagine bringing a newborn baby home from the hospital only to find out that your heat is about to be shut off for an unpaid bill that doesn’t belong to you. So this local mother called the Action News Investigators to get some answers from the gas company.
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Heather:Consumers Energy allowed someone else to open up an account in Kyisha’s Jones name and now they’re blaming her for their costly mistake.
Instead of spending her days playing with her newborn son, Kyisha Jones has been fighting Consumers Energy.
Kyisha Jones/Identity Stolen:"The day that I brought my baby home from the hospital was the day they scheduled to cut off my heat, which is crazy, in the middle of our cold, cold winter."
This young mother says since 2005 she’s had an account in good standing with Consumers Energy for her home in Warren. So Kyisha was shocked when Consumers told her last July that she owed more than $2000 on a second account that she knew nothing about.
Kyisha Jones/Identity Stolen:"We probably could have stopped this, if they would have called me, like, 'Hey Ms. Jones, you’ve been paying your bill, hey what’s going on with your other account?'"
Kyisha’s identity had been stolen. The thief obtained a mortgage in her name to buy this home in West Bloomfield Township and then ran up the $2,000 Consumers Energy bill.
Kyisha Jones/Identity Stolen:"I never lived there, I never wanted to get a mortgage at that address, never seen this property."
Kyisha even went to the West Bloomfield Township police – and sent 2 different police reports to Consumers, but she says they still did not believe her, and they demanded that she pay the bill.
Kyisha Jones/Identity Stolen:"How can you let someone call and say they are somebody and take their word for it. And they said, as long as you’re in good standing with us, they take their customers word for it. So when I ask them, hey, I’m a customer and I’m telling you now that I didn’t open it, why aren’t you taking my word for it now, and they didn’t want to talk to me anymore."
When the police reports were not enough proof for Consumers, Kyisha says they threatened to turn off her heat if she didn’t pay the full bill. So she decided to hire attorney Adam Taub. Despite several letters to the company – Taub says Consumers Energy would not explain how the fraudulent account got set up in the first place.
Adam Taub/Attorney:"Why is Consumers Energy creating an atmosphere that promotes identity theft? Why is Consumers Energy extending credit to people without any proof of identity?"
Even after Taub got involved, Kyisha says someone still arrived at her door to shut her heat off.
Kyisha Jones/Identity Stolen:"It’s stressful and frustrating."
It was only after the Action News Investigators got involved that Consumers Energy did what they should have done in the first place. Consumers announced that they’ll be erasing the outstanding fraudulent balance and any fees on Kyisha’s account.
Although a Consumers Energy spokeswoman apologized and said, everything should have been taken care of more quickly, she then went on to blame Kyisha for not doing enough: saying, quote "While Consumers Energy requested additional information from Ms. Jones that was not provided, more prompt action should have been taken."
So even though Kyisha says she spent endless hours calling and faxing Consumers Energy and even though her attorney sent them these 5 different letters, Consumers is claiming Kyisha should have done more to clear up the identity theft.
Kyisha Jones/Identity Stolen:"I think it’s really unfair."
While Consumers Energy did apologize to Kyisha Jones, they did not provide us any information as to how the fraudulent account was opened in the first place. They also would not tell us how other customers can prevent this from happening to them. But a good rule of thumb is to make sure you check your credit report at least once a year to make sure no one else is using your identity to open accounts.
Consumer Energy released the following statement to Action News about our story:
"Identity theft is a crime and Consumers Energy has developed a program that will help our employees more readily deal with this new form of theft and fraud. This program will also help ensure that Consumers Energy is in compliance with the recent amendments to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), commonly called the "Red Flags of Identity Theft."
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs6a-facta.htm
