[dogma1138]

Apparently pretty much anything including answering a phone call under some jurisdictions.

Pretty much they can hook you in by calling you and saying "Good day Mr. Smith you have a debt for 50$ to Acme Medical do you want to hear about our debt relief plan with payments as low as 1$ a month". If at any point you seem to show any response to it they can use it to prove that you've acknowledged the debt at which point they can go to court and force you to pay.

The laws should be made that way that debt that has expunged is not tradeable or actionable in any way period.

[yardie]

They can call and you can ask but if you say the debt is not yours or you don't recognise it that is not an acknowledgement.

[dogma1138]

Well yes, but most people won't be able to not to put their foot in their mouth. Oddly enough saying "the debt is past this statutory limit and cannot be forcibly collected" might actually be an acknowledgement of the debt by itself. All the laws regarding this are completely bonkers.