AllianceOne trying to collect money I don't owe

I have recently been surprised by a collection agency attempting to collect a debt that seems to have materialized out of nowhere.

I was discharged from bankruptcy in 2006.  I was informed that my student loans couldn't be attached to the bankruptcy and that I would still owe that money.  However, between loan forgiveness programs, I was able to completely pay off the student loans - or so I had thought.  Until this occurred, I had not had any contact with the RBC since I had paid off the loans.  I have moved since then, and unfortunately, I have been unable to find any paperwork to verify that the loans were paid in full.

Tuesday Sep 16th, I received a call from someone at Alliance One. I didn't realize this was a collection agency at first, so when she asked me to verify that I was the person she was calling, I did so.  Then she said that I owed the Royal Bank $4,027 from my student loans. I told her that I had long since paid off my student loans.  She said no, I still owe them $4,027 and need to pay the full amount immediately.  I tried to tell her that even if I did owe the money, which I didn't, I wouldn't be able to pay that amount as I am not working and am on government assistance.  She then insisted that I should get a family member or friend to give me the money to pay them. At this point, I was too exasperated to talk to her, so I hung up. 

My first thought was that this might be a scam, so I e-mailed the RBC's customer support e-mail account.  They replied with a number for me to call.  The customer service rep told me I needed to speak to their collections department, which she forwarded me to.  The collections rep told me that their records showed I owed them money.  She said that they had "written off" the debt at $2,389 and sent it to collections and that the amount now owing was $4,031.37.  She didn't want to listen when I said that I had paid off the loans and that any future dealings would have to be through the collection agency.  I did, however, get her to agree to send me a written copy of what they think I owed.

I didn't get any more phone calls after that, so I wasn't sure what to think, as CAs usually call daily once they start. This Monday (Sep 22nd), I received a letter from them.  It was very uninformative. The only information about the debt itself was the creditor (Royal Bank Of Canada) and the amount $4,072.16.  Other than that, all it told me was that I had 72 hours to contact them or my credit rating would suffer and the different options I had for paying them the entire amount.

On Tuesday, the daily phone calls started.  I just hang up without talking.  Wednesday, I wrote up and sent them a registered letter saying that I deny that the debt is mine, and that they need to supply an accounting of why they think I owe this money, and how they arrived at the amount they quoted. I also instructed them to only contact me by letter and that any phone calls would be ignored.  Also, and in retrospect this may have been a mistake, I told them that although I do not acknowledge this debt, I might consider a reasonable offer if they wished to bargain.  I also sent letters to Equifax and TransUnion to request copies of my credit report.

Today (Thurs Sep 25), I received the letter promised by RBC.  It didn't give much information about the debt, just reiterated the $4,031.37 amount. However, despite the collections rep saying I had to only deal with Alliance One, the letter said I should pay the full amount directly to RBC Collections.  If I thought the debt was valid and I had the money, I would do precisely that, just to make sure Alliance One didn't see a penny of it. Also, I noticed something weird about the account number quoted on the letter.  According to what paperwork I could find about my student loans, the account numbers for my loans were two consecutive numbers ending in '011' (Canada Student Loan) and '012' (Ontario Student Loan).  The account number on the letter is the next consecutive number (ending in '013'), which is not listed.

I'm not sure how to proceed from here.  I would like to get this cleared up, but I don't want to pay a debt I don't think is valid, and I don't trust Alliance One.  I got a recommendation from a local trustee saying that I should just do nothing until I am working again, then see if the agency is willing to bargain at that time.