Identity Theft Hurts

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Businesses and lenders enable financial and services identity theft with their sloppy lending standards, applicant verification identity failures and outright incompetence.

In this story of identity theft from Kileen Texas, a TXU customer, Trissina Neal is a victim of identity theft because TXU has charged her for utilities that TXU gave to an identity thief without validating Trissina Neal’s identity.

Trissina received a police report.

TXU replied that she “probably moved”.

Trissina showed TXU customer service a copy of her lease that clearly demonstrated she hadn’t lived at the address TXU alleges she lived at and enjoyed TXU’s utilities.

TXU replied that she “probably moved”.

Before TXU dare allege Trissina “stole” any utilities, TXU should be forced to prove Trissina applied for utilities at that address, or admit their mistake and apologize.

Outrageous.

**UPDATE***

I recently received a comment from a TXU representative named Richard and I’m pleased to report that TXU customer support has resolved the case in Ms. Neal’s favor.

 “Monday, November 24, 2008 — TXU Energy made a mistake and we have apologized to Ms. Neal. We resolved the issue and power to her home has been restored.
 
We have policies in place to protect against identity theft. When it does occur, we conduct a thorough investigation to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. However, it takes time to complete. Unfortunately, in this instance, our process did not meet the high standard of service we aspire to have for our customers. 
 
TXU Energy does offer customers an additional layer of security against identity theft. They can sign up with any customer representative for the “Password Protection Program.” Instead of relying on a social security number, customers can request a specific and unique password identification purposes. This is available to any customer. 
 
Again, we apologize for the frustration this issue has caused Ms. Neal. We will continue to look for ways to improve.”