My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Florida
I just discovered an upcoming/pending action against me started couple of weeks ago by some unknown (to me) entity for some credit card debt that I never, ever had. Not only I never any debt they claim, they also never contacted me with any notice or complaint at all. The court docket has two entries on the same date: "summons issued" and "complaint".
This action is apparently taken by some junk debt collector from out-of-state (New York). There is bunch of information on these guys, how they are tied to organized crime, how they have so many judgments against them that they have to change their name every few months, how they are constantly breaking the law by trying to collect debts from wrong people etc.
I also checked the Florida Secretary of state site, and these people are not registered business entity in this state (in fact they have been only in business in their state under this name for about five months). I also discovered that they also filed another 80+ actions on the same date as mine against different local individuals.
I need to fight these people before they sneak a judgment against me.
My questions:
1. Can I challenge this action right now before it gets out of hand?
2. If they are not registered business in Florida, can they even legally take this bogus action against me? I understand that they can have local attorney doing this on their behalf, but still they are not even registered in this state. Would that be a good ground for dismissing the case?
3. What are my options, what can I do right now before the court sets the appointment date, or before the judgment is sneaked by me?
The issue is a little bit complicated, since I am moving out of state in about a month. If I am unable to challenge them while here, would I be able to designate a power of attorney or some such arrangement that can fight against these phoneys on my behalf, while I am in another state?

