I would appreciate it very much if you would stop replying to my questions as you are answering questions I am not asking. Thank you.

By law the collections can call 3 times a week forever...
Simply because they may not have the documents does not mean they cannot continue to hound you...it simply means they would have a very difficult time in court proving you owe them.

Again the report was done before the collection agency recieved file.
It was a legitimate report by the creditor which would stay on for 6 years regardless of who now owned the debt.
As far as them calling... they can call for life as you still owe the debt....they just can't collect through the courts if they have no proof or the Stat has run out.
Could they obtain the proof from the original lender. Probably if push came to shove they could. But usually the effort is not worth the time. Once the original lender has sold the debt they more or less wash their hands of it.

Hmm. But when they sell my debt to a third party, such as a collection agency, from what I've read the documentation/proof does not go to the collection agency.

You can legally, then, get collection agencies to stop calling or otherwise harassing you simply by saying something like show me the proof that I owe this debt.

Furthermore - and as you said they won't likely take you to court because they don't likely have the proof - could you not take them to court for the harassment, damage to your credit rating and so on?

No....I am saying your creditor has all the documentation and such that you signed when you took the loan or credit card etc.
It is your creditor who reports you to the bureau when you fail to make your payments. Most members report quarterly.

By the time a collection agency has your file your creditor has already reported.

Are you saying that any company can call any credit reporting agency and tell them you owe them money and not be required to provide proof?

When a collection agency is working with a file it contains the basic info...Address phone number....amount owed....employment number etc.
If they buy the debt for say 5 cents on the dollar on a 2000.00 dollar debt they have only paid 100.00 for that file....so they hound and try to intimidate and even if they only collect 200 on the file...they made money.

The main reason or at least one of them why they rarely sue is they have no documentation to prove the debt...and even if they do the Statute of limitation has expired and they can;t use it in court. Problem is most people do not know what their rights are and crumble to the intimidation and constant phone calls.

No....the collection agency very rarely recieves supporting documentation from the creditor. It is the creditor who has the documents and who has reported to the Credit Bureau...not the collection agency.
If the credit agency bought the debt for a few cents on the dollar....again they rarely have the supporting documentation and the creditor will rarely provide them with it as it is a very time consuming process....given that it usually involves thousands of files.

Let's say you have asked the collection company or other creditor for written proof of the debt and they aren't able to provide the proof, can you then request the credit reporting agency to remove the item(s) from your history/file?