My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Illinois

In January 2018 I received a bill from a debt collector for an apartment I did not rent in Maryland. Before you ask, "Do you know someone..." or "Did you ever live...", the answer is no. I don't have ex's, no kids out of the house and I have never lived fewer than 700 miles away from the state this apartment resides in. This was definitely identity theft, I not only filed a police report but the police have sworn out a warrant against the perpetrator (assuming there was only one). I was a victim of the Equifax hack in May 2017 and since then I've been fighting off identity Theft to the tune of more than $50,000. Among the successful attempts to steal my identity are: two credit card accounts, one car, one $1500 cable bill and the purpose of this post, one apartment rental.

I immediately contacted the debt collector and explained to them that it was fraudulent. They told me I needed to file a police report, which I had already done and immediately provided. In addition to a police report they wanted a photo ID, scan of my Social Security Card and a notarized affidavit. I refused to provide a scan of my Social Security Card (I'm a bit gun-shy after dealing with all this) and instead, provided them with my Drivers License and a form letter I got from the FTC website. The form letter stated my rights and the requirements of the debt collector to provide further information about the debt, as well as to cease contacting me and to refrain from posting anything to my credit report. They responded that they still needed a notarized affidavit, so I did that as well.

Regardless, I still got a nondescript call once a day. They would leave a voicemail, not say anything else about why they were calling. They stopped emailing me, they didn't send me any further correspondents by mail. Just a call once a day "We have a very important message from... this is a call from a debt collector." To add insult to injury, 50% of the time the call was definitely a robot. No, I did not call them back, that is, until I saw on my credit report that there was a collections attempt made against me.

Admittedly I was so irate when I found out I shouldn't have called them. But I did, and I warned them I was furious, and in spite of this, got the condescending tone and the "you never provided us with a police report" nonsense. I have the email (I have all the emails) where they acknowledge receiving the police report, and of course, none of the voicemails they left ever said, "We need your police report". Though I didn't use any profanity or make any threats, I did lose my temper and raise my voice. The call ended with them hanging up on me and me wanting to contact a lawyer.

I'm assuming if I grind it out I could probably get this removed from my credit report without having to get the law involved. But to me, the way they handled this was criminal. It is eternally frustrating to be a victim of a criminal act and then get further victimized by the very people that should be helping you.

I was hoping I could get an idea what my legal recourse is before I start googling attorneys.