&gt; If the law says you can&#x27;t collect, you should not be able to ask either.<p>The law doesn&#x27;t say you can&#x27;t collect, it says you can&#x27;t enforce the debt in court. Its not theoretically impossible that a person who had undertaken a debt that had become unenforceable might be inclined to pay it off for social reasons that don&#x27;t rely on the legal enforceability of the debt, so it probably shouldn&#x27;t be illegal to notify and ask.<p>&gt; You&#x27;re relying on someone&#x27;s ignorance to collect a debt, and I will work to apply a boot to the neck of collection companies who practice that.<p>To the extent that an attempt to collect an unenforceable debt relies on false implications of legal consequences like wage garnishments, seizure of property, etc., it is already barred by the FDCPA, which prohibits a variety of types of false representations and implications in the context of debt collection, and punishes debt collectors who use them.<p>There may be a good case that this should be tightened and require <i>explicit</i> notice of debts that are beyond the statute of limitations and not legally enforceable in collections (which would also give the collector a positive obligation to make this determination.) But I think that prohibiting <i>asking</i> for payment beyond the statute of limitations is probably going to far, for the reasons above.