@knittingknots2
"Experts say the most effective action you can take right now is to freeze your credit files at the three major credit bureaus: #Experian, #Equifax and #TransUnion [ETA: #Innovis, #ChexSystems, and #LexisNexis, too]. That will prevent others from signing up for credit cards or opening other financial accounts in your name."

This is free, but they hide the option on their websites trying to sell you credit monitoring services.

Be adamant. You want to "freeze" your credit. That's the search term. You can also freeze the credit of your under 18 dependents.

The credit can be temporarily unfrozen when you need to use it. The company you're applying for credit with will tell you which of the three they're using to run a credit check and the sites have different ways of temporarily unfreezing.

The US should pass a law to auto-freeze everyone's credit and allow them to opt out if they desire rather than leaving credit unfrozen and requiring people to opt in.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/3-reports-havent-frozen-yet