If I am not mistaken, they will still have your name, address, SS#, and an account # still on file, if it had been sold then all the account records such has payment history, balances and past due balances were in the records sold to the CA, just because they sold the account doesn't mean they don't keep records of their customers.
We all could only wish that once they SOLD the account to a CA they would "purge" you from the system and be done with it.
They have a program that alerts them when an account is at the 7 yr mark and it automatically transmit to the CRA to delete the account, other then that it goes in a "dead" file if you will.
What they verified was that YES you DID have that account with them wayyyyyyyy back when.
If it was SOLD and not ASSIGNED to a CA then they should report all 0 balances and either mark the acct Paid after CO, CO, transfered to another office, or placed for collection, written off as bad debt.
If it were ASSIGNED to a CA it will still have all the balances, that being Current balance, and a past due balance on the account.