Request for Debt Validation answered by Original Creditor

[manydebts]

I live in Oklahoma.

I received a letter from Zwicker & Associates stating that they had been 'retained' by Discover to collect Discover's claim against me. I sent a certified DV request requiring a copy of the original application for signature verification. I received a letter (something about the letter looks suspicious) which supposedly came from one of Discover Financial's Dispute Investigators which indicated the last 4 digits of the acct # and stated,

"...The outstanding balance on the Discover Card is xxx and is explained in detail by the billing statements that were sent to you under seperate cover. The terms of the account and your agreement to pay are outlined in the Cardmember Agreement. Please review the Discover Card Cardmember Agreement for further information.

We have forwarded our findings to Atty Zwicker @ (phone no). Please contact their office for further questions regarding the acct and balance."

The envelope also bears the Discover logo, but the reason the letter and envelope look suspicious to me is that everything is in black--I thought Discover had an orange 'o'.

I have not received anything under seperate cover and it's been 10 days since I received the letter.

Also, at the bottom of the letter it states, "This is an attempt to collect a debt and any info....."

My question is - isn't a letter from the alleged original creditor a violation of Section 809( of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which states that validation must come from the debt collector? or am I reading it wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Edited November 16, 2009 by manydebts