Cohan&slamowitzcohan&slamowitz.llp they said i owe 40000 from mastercard of oct1998 never owned a mastercard Woodbury Ny New York

The above posting by John is correct, IF you have not already been sued. Once you have been sued you have to attack the suit and/or judgment first.

So the first thing to check is if there is a valid judgment against you. If there is not a valid suit/judgment not only do you want to do the validation request. But file your own suit for violations of the FDCPA. They can not state an action they have no power to or no intention of taking. Since the debt is outside of the SOL they can not get a judgment or garnish your wages..hence the violation.

If there is a valid judgment. Then you need to go to the court it was filed in and request a copy of the suit. You are particularly interested in the "Proof of Service". If you were a victim of "sewer service". In that they knew the way you were served would make it impossible for you to show up in court, then you have very good grounds to have the suit vacated. If they lied about the service all together by doing something like forging documents, you not only could go after them for civil damages but perhaps even get the attorneys involved disbarred.

This debt is outside the statute of limitations, so they are powerless over you. Here's how to respond:

Send them a letter via Certified Mail + Return Receipt stating:

Per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, I am requesting written validation of this alleged debt, which includes:

- a copy of the original signed contract with my signature for this alleged debt
- validation of the original "Date of Delinquency" for this alleged debt
- validation of the "Date of Last Activity" for this alleged debt
- validation that this alleged debt is within the statute of limitations.

Per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, cease all verbal communications with me about this alleged debt
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* DO NOT sign your signature on any document that you mail to a debt collector. It could end up on a forged document that can be used against you. Simply type your full name.

FYI: Debt collectors cannot garnish wages by themselves...only a court can do this.

DO NOT be tricked into making any payment on this debt..if you do it will reset the statute of limitations...which would allow them to sue you.