Hey Jim - that is so bizarre. Funny thing is that I just saw a snippet on the news yesterday about these bogus collection agency notices. Glad you found out the other one was a scam before shelling out more money. If you haven't done it lately, I would recommend getting a copy of your credit report (for both you and your wife). You can get them for free at annualcreditreport.com.

My husband started getting collection notices several years ago from cell phone providers, medical providers, etc in Montana. He has never lived anywhere outside of VA and never had a cell plan in his name (they have always been in mine). Anyway, his name was similar to the person who did not pay any of his bills so they tagged him. As soon as one tagged him, all the others followed suit. It was on my husband's credit reports, it was a mess. We only found out when we went to refinance our mortgage. That was quite a shock for us.