Your Rights

• The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act requires debt collectors to to validate a debt if you request that they do so. After receiving the initial written notice, you have 30 days to contact the debt collector in writing and request debt validation. Under the law, the debt collector must submit to you the name and address of the original creditor and verification, or proof, of the debt. Such verification can be a copy of the billing statement from the original creditor, signed credit receipts from charges made by you, a copy of the original contract that you signed or a copy of a judgment previously entered against you. The debt collector must cease contacting you until it is able to validate the debt. Once the debt is validated, the collector can resume collection activity.
  
  

Old Debt

• You are not legally responsible for debt that has aged beyond the state's statute of limitations. This type of debt is referred to as zombie debt. Some debt collectors buy zombie debt for pennies on the dollar and attempt to collect on it. If the debt is beyond your state's statute of limitations, you do not need to ask the debt collector to validate the debt because you are not legally responsible for paying it. Simply send the collector a letter to cease and desist contacting you about the debt. By law, the debt collector must not contact you again unless the contact is to inform you that there will be no further contact or that a specific action has been take against you, such as a lawsuit.
  
  

Warning

• Debt collectors don't always behave in an ethical manner. Owners of zombie debt often will sue debtors in court for the old debt. The collector hopes the debtor does not show and thus the collector will receive a default judgment. If you're sued for an old debt, always appear in court and inform the judge that the debt is expired under state law. The judge will dismiss the case. Failure to appear will lead to a judgment against you and you then become legally responsible for that debt.
  
  

Prevention/Solution

• Just because a company calls and says you owe them money doesn't make it true. Some debt collectors try to collect on debt they do not own. This is a scam. Never pay a debt collector without obtaining validation of the debt first. In addition to requesting debt validation from the collector, you can call the original creditor and ask them which collection agency they hired to collect the debt, or which agency they sold the debt to. If you pay a debt collector for a debt it doesn't own, that does not prevent the legitimate owner of the debt from seeking payment from you.