iirc, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act requires them to provide details of the debt as long as you dispute the debt, in writing, within 30 days of the notice. Use certified mail with return receipt.

Adding to the above - DO NOT - repeat DO NOT give them your SSN if they ask to 'verify' who you are.
I had a bill collector call me several weeks ago about 'a contract I signed - we have your signature'. I told them to show me 'my signature', which they promised to fax. Never got a fax.
Called back - they wanted my SSN to verify my identity - told them to pound sand. Collector getting very agitated now, so I asked them what SSN they had. Gave me last 4 digits - wasn't mind. Told them to go chase someone else.

I had this happen while I was overseas. I had paid the bill and the City had sent the bill to collection by mistake. I called the city to confirm that the bill was paid. I sent a letter to the collection agency with the support from the city and told them not to bother me. It went away and did not reflect on my credit report.

Deal with the town first, make sure you paid it and forget about it.

Not calling the collection agency sounds like a good idea. Calling the City might make sense. Otherwise, I'd probably file this in the "Ignore" file. But there is one thing I noticed that's really disturbing........

......you have more posts now than I do.

Supe,

May have this being worked on right now. Someone on the list has offered to stop by the town hall and find out more info.

Frankly I am really leaning towards the scam aspect of this. Its been over 7 years. It would take 20 minutes to find me had they really been looking. Why would any town or business turn it over to lawyers after the 7 year point? As well in Texas it seems that its not 7 years but only 4.

Were I looking to get my money back I would have started looking after 3 months, not 7 years.

Joe A

PS been over 18k posts for a while now. You were catching up to me when I dropped off of the list for a while. Want me to go back underground for a while? :)

Joe,

The collection agencies buy old, bad debts in huge packages (groups of several hundred at a time) for fractions of a penny on the dollar. If they collect even one, it pays for the package.

It's churn, in attorney-speak. They do not care if it valid, only that it is a database somewhere.

Yours may not even be valid, just on a list of closed escrows, and they are phishing.

Everytime I read this thread, an ad for a collection agency pops 'up' down below.

Your Honor, the Defense rests.....