My question involves collection proceedings in the State of:Minnesota.
I have been harrassed recently by a debt buyer. A Collection issue mysteriously appeared on my report. The name of the debt buyer makes it sound like they operate out of a western state, but their offices appear to be in the midwest (although the collections letter was mailed from the western state). I am located in Minnesota. I contacted them after reading about what to say on this website and asked them for proof (copies of the personal guarantee they reference) that the debt was actually mine (I honestly do not believe it is) and that they were able to collect on it. I heard nothing back, so I made a dispute on my Experian credit report. Experian reported back that they had contacted the collections agency who had verified the debt as valid. When I contacted Experian they indicated that all they did was contact the collections agency and get an assurance the debt was valid. There were not copies of any contracts signed by me or proof that it was indeed valid. They updated my report to indicate that it would age off this October (not long from now - 1 month) but I was still upset about this, mostly because I believe there to be fraud involved. So I contacted the collection agencies local BBB and filed a complaint. I was told they have an "F" rating with the BBB for EXACTLY this sort of thing. I was also told to contact the Minnesota Department of Commerce because Collection Agencies and Debt Collectors are regulated in Minnesota heavily. When I did this I learned that the company was not licensed to collect in Minnesota! Also, around this time the company decided to file collections thru Equifax against me with differing dates *AND* which would extend the time reported from October (where it ages off Experian) to February of next year (on Equifax). O h, and one other piece of relevant information. I was able to find out who they said the original creditor was and contacted them and they have no idea who I am - they provide services for businesses - not directly to individuals.
So I am planning on filing a local lawsuit against them and collecting information, but my legal question is actually pretty simple. If the statute of limitations is exceeded (which it definitely is in this case according to both the credit reporting bureau reports which is the ONLY information I have on this). Can a collection agency file a collection after the statute of limitations is exceeded with a credit bureau? (they did) Can they arbitrary change dates? (they did) What prevents them from continually doing this besides a lawsuit from me? If they are not in my state how can a lawsuit from me even effect them from filing a collection report with a collection reporting agency? I am obviously very frustrated over this.

