Response to DV letter seems pretty weak

Brief as I can make it:

portfolio recovery associates bought a debt from Providian and tried to collect. I sent them a DV, and they replied by asking me to fill out an "affidavit of identity theft". (Huh?) Thinking it was a mistake, I ignored it. A year passed. They then sent me a letter saying that since I hadn't sent in the form, they were going to resume collecting. I sent another DV. They then gave the file to their attorney, who contacted me in the usual manner. I sent him a DV.

He responded by sending me a letter, on his own letterhead, with no other documents or anything. It said this:

"This debt originated as a Providian Bank Visa [account number]. The account was opened on [date]. the credit card was charged off on [date] at a balance of [x dollars]. The last payment received from you was on [date]. Providian sold this debt on [date]. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, on whose behalf we are authorized to collect this debt, is now the owner of this debt.

Providian Bank's mailing address is P.O. Box 660509, Dallas, TX 75266-0509.

The validation required by law is contained in this letter. The other data you requested is not required to be furnished by us in a validation response."

No one has ever given me any actual documentation pertaining to this debt.

Anyone have any suggestions? This "response" seems awfully thin to me... basically all he did in response to my DV was to say, "It's valid because I say it's valid," which doesn't fly with me. I'm thinking about disputing, since the dispute process requires the verification that I'm looking for.

Do you see any errors in the information provided by the attorney? Basically, you will understand from the details whether the lawyer has your correct info or not. Check this out.

Yes, I do. In his initial communication, he cited a debt amount that was $600 higher than in his reply to the DV.

Tell said attorney to reread FDCPA
since he seems to be suffering from dementia. Validation on any debt is sent to the collector from the original creditor. Collector forwards data to consumer. If there is nothing in writing from oc,debt has not been validated. If oc cannot validate,collector cannot collect. Read up on validation sections of the law and send letter to attorney disputing this garbage that was sent.

I tend to have trouble with the "legal-ese", but it does appear pretty clear to me that he's trying to pull a fast one. ("cajunbulldog, you owe me a million dollars. Here's proof: I said you owe me a million dollars. So pay up.")

In any event, I am thinking that a dispute is in order, but I'd still like to hear a few more opinions.

Yep that's about how strong his proof is! You could type up a bill on your letterhead and say hey knucklehead,where's my money?

The next correspondence to them you need to state according to fdcpa "xxxxxxxxx; copy and paste the validation part of the law right into your correspondence. If he can't validate it, he can not collect it.

Actually, judging by a strict reading of the fdcpa's validation section, I think he's technically adhering to the letter of the law. Of course, the spirit of the law is another matter... obviously, I'm not just going to take his word for anything, especially since his client is portfolio recovery associates, which has a very bad reputation.

Cajunbulldog is laughing at my post. If I owed someone a million dollars, I wouldn't be laughing, I'd be trying to come up with the money. C'mon, buddy, snap to it. Chop, chop.

Where is my signed contract,blood sample,dna sample,and lien on first born? You know I gotta have copies of all that to validate your debt properly!

I was reading that acceptable validation is providing one valid item like providing the name and address of the original creditor. Is this true? Of course if the amounts don't match your records, I would continue the dispute process.

Well from my experience paperwork to prove a debt must come from the original creditor.

Otherwise anyone with basic office and imaging software can create documents and say look you owe me money.

At this point, I'm planning to send a letter back asking for documentation proving that the debt exists. I'm carefully avoiding using the word "dispute", both for legal reasons (I want to save the dispute process for later) and because, frankly, in my opinion, there's nothing to dispute yet because they haven't given me anything to disagree with.

I do believe that they have to prove they own the debt. I don't know if it has to come from the original creditor. You may want to call your attorney generals office and ask them this question.

Oh, I agree with you completely, Fed Up... that was the point I was trying to make when I told Cajunbulldog that he owed me a million dollars. I'm planning, at this point, to ask for documentation, as I said, and if they don't give it to me, then I'll dispute. I don't think I need to contact the AG just yet, but I'm keeping it in mind. Thanks for the reminder.

Why don't you contact the original creditor? They can probably tell you who they sold the debt to. Keep in mind that debt collection agencies buy and sell debt frequently so depending on the age of your debt, this may or may not be the first resell.

The way I see it, it's the collector's job to prove that they're entitled to my money, not mine. *shrug*