Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

I received a call from a debt collector yesterday, after he called my mother in law telling her i was being sued, and if i wanted to handle this matter i would need to contact them immediately. I did. I negotiated what they said was an 1,100 debt down to 400. I gave them my banking info, and then realized i could be talking to Joe Shmoe....I asked for verification of them owning my debt....but they ignored that question with an answer of "ma'am we are not getting rich off $400. I was on the phone this morning for 4 hours starting with the original lender following the trail of who actually still owns the debt. It has been passed from agency to agency. NONE being the people who contacted me yesterday. I had one agency call them on my behalf and tell them I wanted to cancel my agreement until i had proof of ownership of this loan. The man got HORRIBLY angry, yelling, talking over the woman and ultimately hung up on her after saying if i canceled i would be sued for breach of contract to them. The man then called me back directly and swore he would send me an email with our agreement in writing. I did get a generic email...but I couldn't tell you it was legitimate company or not. They also gave me the number of the company they bought the debt from, and when i call that number...it literally put me on hold for over an hour before i hung up. My question is....i have 1 week until my first payment is to go through, I have no problem paying the bill, but my concern is I am being scammed, since NO proof has been given. What rights do i have, now that i have already made arrangements with people who could not be who they say they are, and how can I get that proof? They have passed MANY of the fair trade laws as far as I am concerned, but afraid to confront them any further with the attitude they had to the initial cancellation call.

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