If a consumer disputes a debt, what should the collector do?

• A. Investigate the dispute and provide validation information or other debt details as appropriate.
• B. Dismiss the dispute and continue collection unchanged.
• C. Immediately file a lawsuit without investigation.
• D. Cease all collection activities for six months.

Answer: (C)

Disputes trigger a verification step. When a consumer challenges a debt, the collector should investigate the dispute and provide validation information or other debt details as appropriate. This ensures the debtor has documentation showing what is owed and the basis for the debt. Filing a lawsuit immediately without verification would violate the requirement to verify the debt first, and simply dismissing the dispute or pausing collection for six months isn’t the proper response to a valid dispute. The proper path is to verify and share the validation docs before taking further action.