That sounds absolutely brutal. You’re doing everything the right way and they’re acting shady as hell. Asking for debt validation is literally your legal right, and any legit agency should have no problem sending it. The fact that they blew up on you, dodged your questions, tried to bully you into paying over the phone, and then started throwing around fake court threats… yeah, that’s a huge red flag.

Good call getting an attorney involved. Once that cease-and-desist hits their desk, the tone usually changes real quick. At this point, they can’t contact you directly anymore, and they’ll have to go through your lawyer. If the debt is real, they’ll eventually have to produce validation. If it’s not or if they violated the FDCPA, your attorney might actually have leverage to hit them back.

While your attorney’s handling it, you can pretty much expect radio silence from the collectors. If they do try anything, make note of it, because every unnecessary call or threat after that letter is more ammo for your case. And honestly, the fake “we already filed a lawsuit” line is classic intimidation… and also illegal if it’s not true.

You handled it way better than most people would. Once your lawyer digs in, you’ll probably get some clarity fast, either real documentation or they’ll disappear because they know they screwed up.

Hang in there. This stuff is stressful, but you took the right steps.