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I don’t think she likely had to pay a dime and wouldn’t have faced any consequence besides a few months of annoying calls. Her credit score wouldn’t have even been impacted.

I think given this story they totally messed up.

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A lot of people are unaware of who is responsible for what, and may be convinced to pay debts they don't owe. And creditors absolutely take advantage of this. Any debt collector worth his salt will hound everyone they can identify until they are told to stop in the particular way the law prescribes.

> besides a few months of annoying calls.

normalizing harassment and fraud, great

Oh, I’m not suggesting this system is normal or sane at all. Merely that OP could have understood it better and paid $0 instead of $33k.

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