Getting a credit card: Credit card

Macy 's employee told me that I can sign up for a loyalty card for a discount, during the process they requested for a govt id and SSN. After the loyalty card was denied I realized that they must have tried to open a credit card in my name instead. They never once mentioned that this would be a credit card application. I feel that this is a gross violation of my financial wellbeing and luckily there was no credit card opened in my name.