A debt collector is required to conduct an investigation in support of any validation.
They rely upon information available to them, either by contact with the original creditor or via information/documents transferred to them if they acquired the debt.
The absence or presence of reporting with a CRA by the original creditor is not the sole, or even primary, basis for supporing their investigation, and deletion of reporting by the creditor would not preclude the debt collector from conducting the required investigation and making a determination.
The primary relevance of reporting of an OC account is that if the OC reporting shows the DOFD on the debt, then the debt collector is permitted under the process set forth in FCRA 623(a)(5) to rely on and report that same DOFD to the CRA without the need attempt to contact the creditor to obtain their statement of the DOFD.
Additionally, a debt collector is not required to respond to any DV request, even if it is timely. A timely DV imposes a cease collection bar, which remains in effect until such time as the debt collector chooses to send validation. A DV could remain unvalidated with no impact.
The normal process for attempting removal of a legit collection is to make a pay for deletion offer.
