Thanks everyone. It did seem weird that they accused me of owing them money and then starting asking me for personal information when they had no authority to do so. diddydicky - It was probably about 3 years ago.

Hi, thanks for the advice. Should I write to DCA saying something along the lines of: 'I have no obligation to give you my personal info, please leave me alone until you can provide proof that i am the person you are after' Or is it best to just ignore? I imagine they will just keep sending letters if I do... The debt is about 3 years old. They are asking me for my last 3 addresses, although ironically none of those are where the debt was incurred!

Hello, A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a debt collection agency concerning a debt which I have reason to believe I may be partially responsible for (never cancelled gas account in a flatshare a few years ago). I think what I owe is only around 10% of the amount they are now chasing me for. I wrote back to the the debt collectors asking for details of the debt, and they have written back asking me for my last 3 addresses and the dates when I left them 'in order to prevent a breach of the data protection act' (presumably so they can verify I am the person they are after). Should I comply? I am happy to try to resolve the situation and repay the debt I owe, but really don't want to give them any more personal information than I need to. Would it be best to try to tackle this with the gas supplier or the debt collectors? Thanks for any help you can give