[TheOtherHobbes]

I know someone who walked away from £15k of credit card debt because the collection company sued with forged paperwork.

He happened to have all the original paperwork on file and it proved they hadn't followed the required legal procedures.

Trying to forge an essential document wasn't going to help their case.

I've heard from a number of people who work for banks, lenders, and insurers that record keeping is a complete mess, and a certain amount of unlawful creative improvisation isn't unusual.

So... they may claim to have proof, but there's a reasonable chance that if it's examined closely and/or all original correspondence is kept, they don't.

This seems to be worse in the US where debts are traded and retraded and the original paperwork may be long gone.