ticket while driving rental car 4 years ago

Presumably there's a question somewhere in there?

It looks like you're aware this could be a scam. Can you tell how precise the collection company's information is, so that you can narrow down the chances that it's a scam, i.e., does the collection company appear to have accurate information about the ticket you got, such as date, type of violation, and amount?

There's also the issue of whether this could affect your credit rating--that is, if it isn't a scam.

Another question that you should ask of someone here (I don't know the answer to it) is: if you had any desire to return to Italy, would non-payment somehow cause a problem upon your return to Italy?

Googled the phone number of company and the area code notes that it produces many scams

Well, you could have not known you did something wrong at the time. There are a lot of discussions on the forum about people getting tickets in the mail years later.

Anyway, if you call the company, can you block your number on caller ID? Although, if it's an 800#, most of the time, it won't work. Also, googling a number does not always produce accuracy. People on the net may have "reported it as spam" if they were called from the number often. That's what could be.

Is the official letter "official?" Did you research/google the address? If it's a verified addy, then it's most likely who they claim to be.

Since they have your address anyway, call and ask them to send you a copy of the original infraction if they have it.

I think? when an attempt to collect a debt goes silent for a few years, I think? your info was probably forwarded to a collection company as a last effort attempt. That's the way I see it from what you are stating.

Of course, this is all speculation on my part based on what info you gave here, lol.

Could be any number of things at work. After four years, probably too old to collect. This is becoming more wide spread with more reports that the Italians are turning the tickets over to collection agencies. A good possibility is that some group bought all of the old tickets at deep discount and are now running an attempt to collect. (Often done in the US.) I think it would be very difficult to obtain a court judgement against you for an Italian traffic tickets but that is not the greatest threat. The big threat is that they simply report the non-payment of a traffic fine to the credit bureaus. And while you are fighting to get that removed from your credit report, your credit score takes a dive. And it could be difficult to get it removed because it is factually correct. If don't need a good credit score, then I would not worry about it. But it you need a good score for a future purchase, then I would watch my credit score very carefully and proceed cautiously.

It would be helpful if you could provide more information on the ticket and the company that sent you the most recent notice. One of the forum members may be able to provide some insight into what action to take. I'd be speculating if I offered any suggestions for dealing with this.