Complaint Review: Palisades Collection

I did have a legitimate account with AT&T Wireless 5 years ago. It did have an overdue amount that was sent to a legitimate collection agency at that time. I paid that amount off in entirely in 2002. This collection has now appeared on my report in 2006 from this Palisades company!

I had never received ANYTHING from Palisades about this debt. I saw this on my report from all 3 credit bureaus a couple of weeks ago. At that time I did an online dispute with all three bureaus. I just received a reply from Experian with an updated entry, but it is still on there.

A week ago, I received a collection letter from Palisades finally. I immediately wrote a reply letter with a copy of my payment confirmation from the other agency (I keep records of everything thank goodness) and told them that I was disputing the report with the credit bureaus.

I have seen from this website that this is a common occurrence with this company. The advice has been to send a debt validation (or something like that) by certified mail. Please tell me what EXACTLY that is and what to do to get it OFF my credit report. Because just a dispute with the credit bureau obviously did not work.

Janice
San Diego, California
U.S.A.