It’s kind of Bond-esque, if you ask me. “I don’t expect you to talk, Mr. Prefect; I expect you to die.”
Cheeky, I’m with you on spam calls to these shit bags.
As to the OP, DO NOT respond unless you want to settle the account. Response affirms the debt, much as asking ANY info on telemarketers under the new law.
Call any of the 3 major ScrewPeople/Credit Reporters and look for accounts you may owe on. You might even find stuff you forgot about.
Back to the phone calls, check with a judge in your state to be sure. Normally, you can record a phone call so long as you answer the phone saying the call may be recorded. They do it when you call them. This also works if they try to call you at work, just tell them you can’t accept calls at work and they have to take the business number out.
One call to the creditor (some states require written request) will end home calls as well.
You’re still gonna have the credit report thing, but at least you can sleep in on Saturday without a Nazi bitch telling you how she’s going to screw up your life because she thinks you’re a deadbeat. And usually throw in a shot about your manhood. They are so understanding, you can see why collection agencies are so revered.
Thanks for all your helpful advice. Although I completely disregarded it and called the collection agency anyway. I can’t stand having crap like this hanging over my head.
Turns out, Mr. T. thought I owed a certain bank credit card over $2000, and have owed that money for over 3 years. It also turned out that Mr.T, a rude, obnoxious, prick who had ascertained my guilt from the beginning, was not from the U.S. but from another Canadian province. (The supposed “court action #” seems to be his term for their internal filing numbers.) He kept using phrases like, “Come on, Mr. Prefect, you know you owe this money.”, and, “You are a marathon runner, the type that always runs away from their debt.”, plus many more. I think I would have preferred shots to my manhood over that kind of patronizing crap.
He pushed hard, very hard, for me to commit to paying the full amount by the 15th, or half ($1100) by this Friday, on the phone, without my getting confirmation from the bank. When I stated, repeatedly, that I could not commit to anything since I wanted actual proof that I owed that money, he started to threaten me that he would arrive at my door with bailiffs to take my car/furniture/whatever away. He also implied that my family would break up over this and insisted that my wife would want me to take the half-off deal.
This morning I called the bank in question, and it is most definitely a case of mistaken identity, and they are going to call the collection agency and tell Mr. T. that,
<slow arm wave>
I am not the FordPrefect you are looking for.
</slow arm wave>
I will be calling him too, I want a letter from him admitting that the bank has stated that I am not responsible for this debt, since I will get called again if and when this account moves to a new person/agency. Plus I want to hear it from him when he realizes that he is in the wrong 
:wally
Now the task is to ensure that this is not messing up my credit report. But, all is well that ends well.
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard that…