Whenever I've gotten these in the past, I've always sent them a debt validation letter as a first line of attack. Make them prove that it's your debt and they have the right to collect on it. They normally don't have the paperwork to prove it's your debt or that they own it, so they usually just go away after that. The last time I did this was several months ago for a CA (Northland Group) that was trying to collect on an old auto repo that was about to fall off my credit report. After sending them a debt validation letter I subsequently received a letter from them stating they had closed the account with them and returned it to the previous junk debt buyer that they got it from, and they won't report any information to the credit bureaus. I hope this helps.
Current - FICO 3/2019: EX(753); EQ(763); TU(749)
Beginning - FICO 7/2014: EX(630); EQ(608); TU(581)
Credit: Wells Fargo Home Projects Charge Card ($7,800); Wells Fargo Home Rebate Visa ($4,000); Capital One Quicksilver ($10,000); Capital One Venture ($6,000); Discover it ($7,900); Macy's ($20,000); BrandsMart ($4,000); Banana Republic ($1,200); Lowes ($12,000); Amex Everyday ($30,000); Macy's Amex ($15,000); Amex Platinum (NPSL); Citi Diamond Preferred ($9,000); Chase Freedom ($9,000); Wells Fargo Outdoor Solutions ($10,000); SunTrust HELOC ($25,000)
