Midland Credit Management, Inc claims they bought a debt from citibank usa and wants me to pay half by 09-23-07 Los Angeles California

Anytime a company purchases new accounts they mail a letter to the consumer,to validate the debt, if you just write "I dispute the debt" on the letter, the burden of proof is the company sending the letter. They will then send you whatever info they have, if they have nothing to support the validity they'll send you a deletion letter.

Send them a Debt Validation request...this is a simple statement like: "I do not recognize this debt. Per the The Fair Credit Reporting Act I am requesting that this debt be validated."

Mail the request via Registered Mail with Return Receipt and write the Registered Mail # on the letter.

If you're lucky it will end there. Midland has a history of placing negative info on credit reports...so in a few weeks you might want to pull your credit reports again to see if they have done this.

I recommend this site for more info on this sleazy company:

budhibbs.com/debtcollectorpages/midland_credit_management.htm

Yea with a daily post about midland on here, personally i'd be reluctant to respond. No you don't need an attorney when dealing with funky debt collectors. they are playing a "mailing for dollars" games - just like dialing for dollars but cheaper.

a real debt collector would not only send you a letter with the amount owed but who you owed it to. you know like $2000 to visa or mastercard and include some other important details like oh let say the year this debt was from.

just to send you a letter telling you that you owe $2000 but you can just send us 1/2 would be fine. in which give me your address so I can do the same. and i'll buy some beer and maybe some new socks.

its my theory that if you respond either by mail or phone - they'll know that they've made a connection & will bother you even more.

If they keep it up I would begin to file on 'em with the federal trade commission places like that. and take a look thru the other posts here to see what actions folks are taking against midland. and keep your money, especially if you don't owe them any. or maybe its a debt from years back.

depending on your state - there's a statue of limitations. in california its 4 years so when i hear from folks like midland - i don't do anything. unless they call & i get to talk to them and then i will begin the process of filing with different agencys. eventually if enough reports are filed & people complain - sometimes they're shut down & put out of biz.