I need some advice lads.

In March 2020 I was the victim of fraud where my bank account and debit card details were used to take out a phone and various contracts. The fraudsters even tried to take out a credit card in my name. I had my card cancelled and cancelled the direct debits and monitored if any new ones were set up.

Now after a long and shitty process I was able to get it all sorted, or so I thought. Today my credit rating had dropped by 200 and a bit points and I had to pay premium for Experian to see what it was. Turns out a debt collection agency feels I owe £140 for a defaulted account that was opened on March 2020 and defaulted in July of 2020.

Funnily enough I have a letter from another debt collection agency from a few years ago with roughly the same figure. I called them, advised it was fraud and got it all sorted. If it is the same debt then it's from Virgin who's fraud team never got back to me. I had the contracts cancelled, raised it was fraud etc and haven't heard anything back from them since doing all that. 2 direct debits were taken out and I have a feeling only one of them was fully resolved and now this £140 debt has been floating around since the fraud team never got back to me.

I've received no letters from this debt collection agency but I expect to get one soon. I have already emailed Experian and the debt collection agency about how I feel it's fraudulent.

I'm just wondering if I should just pay it off and be done with it and writing it off as a slightly costly fuck up or having to deal with all this shite again, potentially having the agency withdraw it only for Virgin to pass it on to another agency. Dealing with Virgin is a fucking nightmare by the way, Vodafone were lovely and had everything sorted in an instant.

I thought I was done with all of it but it's reared it's head again which is why I'm thinking about just paying it and fucking it off.