I was told that under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) a debtor has 30 days to request validation of a debt after receiving notice from a collection agency that they owe a debt. Is the collection agency under any legal obligation to provide validation if the debtor requests it after the 30 day time frame has expired?

I have a situation where AFNI collection agency recently placed 3 old Verizon accounts on my credit report. The accounts do not belong to me, and I need to get them off my credit report ASAP. I called AFNI and they stated they sent a letter to me in March 2007. However, they sent the letter to my old address, so I never received written notice of these collections. I recently found out the hard way when I pulled a copy of my credit report. I told AFNI that they sent the letter to the wrong address. AFNI stated that my 30 day time to request validation has expired because they never received the letter back stating that I no longer lived there (ie. "returned to sender"). This sounds completely bogus to me, but is there any truth to what they have told me?

If I have lost my right to request validation, what should I do next? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

What you need to do is contact the credit bureau(s) where the notations were made and tell them you are disputing these charges as being yours. Request that they remove them. They will contact the creditor and request they prove them. If they are not removed, you can then sue AFNI for a false report.

While they may not have to provide you with the verification on your request, they will if you sue.