This seems to the the correct understanding. See these two articles that give the view from people who tracked down the debt collections and the bad data in tho

This seems to the the correct understanding. See these two articles that give the view from people who tracked down the debt collections and the bad data in those spreadsheets. Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-06/millions-are-hounded-for-debt-they-don-t-owe-one-victim-fought-back-with-a-vengeance https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-06/millions-... NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/15/magazine/bad-paper-debt-collector.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/15/magazine/bad-...