I've been at it with these dimwits for a couple of years over a boggus Providian account. After several demands by me for validation (over a year ago I recieved the boggus "affidavit" they sometimes send out", a few months ago I recieved a signature card, with an attempt at forging my name on it. Mind you, there were no companies mentioned on the card. Just my name, an old address, and my forged (badly) signature. This only goes to show what lengths these criminals will go to. They've so far kept it off of my credit report. It has gone out of the statute of limitations this month, so they'll prbably try some funny business. I happen to know that it is illegal to re-age an alleged debt and illegal to report it as an open account.
For those with the patients, Sherman/LVNV will leave a large paper trail communicating with you, with a host of fdcpa violations. This is another reaso to only communicate in writing.
I called them up only on my convenience, becase they don't know my number. You'll be talking to high school kids, or those who are easily impressionable. One young woman even said that the FDCPA doesn't apply to them, it only applies to third party collectors (I think she'd been told this and really believed it).
BTW, for Texas residents, the Texas Debt Collections Act (similar to FDCPA) does apply even to original creditors.