Everything below presumes they did not file action in Cook County IL after the contact in IL and won a court action by default because your husband did not appear. But a "case number" doesn't mean they ever did that.

c) The cease and desist is not a promise to pay nor is it an admission of liability. Nor is it in and of itself a dispute of the debt. See WhyChat's site for a parcel of communications you can adapt to use with CAs.

What would be awkward would be to send a cease and desist and then have to send a mini-Miranda, because you have already demanded they cease communications as well as collection activities.

WhyChat can best advise regarding these documents.

But no, communicating via documents of this type will not CAUSE problems. The real problem here is CA violating FDCPA in spirit and deed. The collector who posted that his firm routinely sues anyone who sends mail with a green card may be telling the truth, his company may be doing just that -- and if you read the FTC Talk bulletin, you know why. CAs count on the number of deafult judgments to vastly negate the costs of LOSING lawsuits.

a) If nothing has been paid on a credit card account since 1991, CAMCO has no WINNABLE recourse UNLESS they persuade you to settle the debt you CAN NOT BE LEGALLY SUED FOR, get a payment, and the terms of payment are violated.

They will attempt to persuade you to settle with them by threatening to sue, calling you at work, calling you at home, and in other ways cited by people on the forum.

They may lie to you and say YOU have no recourse, which can only be true if they filed suit a year ago when you did live in IL and already have a default JUDGMENT.

Your recourse is the SOL for debt and the protection of FDCPA. IF NO PAYMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE 1991, statutes for the state you reside in and the state you were residing in should both have expired, unless the NJ statutes run longer than New York's.

They will lie to you and say the creditor is directing them (to harrass you, to sue you, etc.)

Or they may lie to you and say that their purchase of the paper re-ages the obligation. It does not.

They may establish 3 party contacts including neighbors and people in your workplace.

They will do this in flagrant violation of FDCPA, with two purposes behind their actions:

1 -- VERY FEW people complain -- except verbally to anyone who will listen. I don't mean very few people on this board. I mean very few people amongst the thousands who are abused by CAs.

2 -- The way they violate FDCPA leads people who are not assertive to believe there is no way to ENFORCE FDCPA, which lessens the likelihood they will complain ... and even those who complain rarely ever file suit for damages when they have incurred damages.

b) One call of this type is enough reason to send a C&D(see caution above), or would be enough for most people. The Cook County Case Number is PROBABLY only smoke, but having lived in IL it would be prudent to check to see there was no fire.

There is one beautiful thing about your situation.

You can complain to the IL AG office whether the case number is smoke or NOT, in one complaint.

They, after all, recorded that message ... Cook County Case #xxxxxx is something the IL AG can check out as well as you.

AND the way they contacted you is part of a PATTERN, so DO come back periodically to check the board for what's in my complaint to the BBB ...

If we coordinate complaints, well, at least we know two we can refer the next person to ...

Save that phone message, however you need to do it. If you have message center service from the phone company, ask them to help. If you have a phone with a chip, buy a new one and save the chip. If you have a tape-operated answering machine, replace the message tape, date the tape you are saving and store it in your safe deposit box after you transcribe it.

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