The following conversation left Lily reeling. She discovered there was a debt against her name, which had been referred to the debt collection agency for non-payment.
"They told me it was for a power account with Meridian Energy. When I told them my address, it didn't match the one they had in their records. My name and date of birth was correct, but the address and email details weren't."
A spokesperson for Meridian Energy confirmed credit checks were conducted using just a name and date of birth but this process was updated in January last year, meaning more information was required.
Privacy laws meant the agency couldn't tell Lily what address or email they had for her.
However, Lily was able to piece some clues together and come up with a potential suspect
"I was friends with someone a couple of years back but I ended the friendship three years ago because I became aware of her having been less than honest with some things. I don't like lies and I don't like dishonesty, so I had stepped away from that friendship."
The debt collection agency suggested Lily check her credit rating on a website and she discovered she had poor credit, due to the Meridian Energy account in her name.
"The account for $300 had been referred to the debt collectors about a year ago, and it had been getting paid back at $20 a week. The last payment had been missed, which left me with a poor credit rating."
According to Meridian Energy, an account was referred to a collection agency only after it had passed a rigorous credit cycle process, including numerous contacts or attempted contacts with the customer spread across a number of weeks.
Lily, who with her husband Josh has five children, says having a poor credit rating was worrying.
"Josh and I have only just got a loan this year to pay for a fireplace installation at home. Luckily we applied for the loan before the payments were defaulted on. Otherwise we might have been declined for our loan, leaving us unable to heat our house this winter."
Lily went to the police and laid a complaint and then approached the woman's husband.
"I went to see him at work, because quite frankly, I don't have any nice words for his wife right now so I didn't want to go to their home and see her."
Lily said she approached the husband to let him know of her suspicions and to say she had been to the police.
"I asked the husband to find out if there were any other bills in my name as I don't like this feeling hanging over me."
Lily says the husband didn't seem to know anything about it.
"He told me his wife had said my mail was being sent to their house because I was having it go missing from my own mailbox, so he hadn't questioned seeing bills arrive in my name at their house."
To get rid of the poor credit score, Lily now has to provide multiple forms of identification to prove she wasn't the other person.
"It's ironic really, the power company have required me to send them a copy of my driver licence and other stuff to prove I am the real Lily Webb, when they originally let someone open an account in that name with just my date of birth and name."
Lily recommended people regularly check their credit score.
"There are websites which you can do this through." She said people should also ensure their Facebook account doesn't have too much information on it.
"My date of birth was visible on Facebook. I have changed it now so it isn't. That can help protect you from some identity theft, but not all. This was someone I knew. It was easy for her to know my birthday as we were friends."
The woman Lily suspected of opening the Meridian Energy account did not respond to requests for comment.