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I heard that if the collector owns the debt and you do NOT wish to pay the debt state: (be sure your tape recorder is on beforehand).
You: "It is my policy to never deal with debt collectors who are not representing the creditor. Give me your address so that I may send you a cease and desist letter in accordance with the FDCPA."
Does this mean that if a collector buys your bad debt, you do not have to pay them?
This is wrong information you have got. If the collection agency owns your debt and you do not pay them they will file a lawsuit and get a judgment for recovery of the debt. It won't help much by making such a statement to avoid payment of the debt.
What you can do is to ask them to validate that they have purchased your debt from the original creditor and give you written proof of that.
Before you pay anything to a collection agency, you must make them validate the debt in question. THere are alot of junk debt collectors out there that try to collect a debt that they legally don't have. If you want to verify who actually has the account, you can also contact the orginial creditor and they should tell you who has the account. You will find that alot of collection agencies will not validate the debt.