New statistics show credit card application fraud has increased by eight per cent over the last year. Pat Foran has more. <\/p>\n
Brampton resident Manshapinder Singh says last November he went online to check his banking and was confused to see a $35,000 line of credit had been added to his account.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I checked the balance, I was shocked because the whole line of credit was used and I had no idea about it,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me it looked like it might be a case of identity theft,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
It appears someone had gone to his bank, opened the line of credit, and asked for a credit card and then maxed out the $35,000 account.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey issued a physical client card to someone under that line of credit, and they handed it over to someone at the Milton branch. I told them I have never been to that branch in my whole life,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n
Singh is a customer of Scotiabank, and he was told he must have opened the account and was responsible for paying back the funds. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson told CTV News, \u201cScotiabank cannot comment on any individual client matters for privacy reasons. However, Scotiabank takes allegations of fraud seriously. We remind clients to remain vigilant and to never share passwords, PINs, or personal information with anyone. If clients have concerns, we encourage them to contact us directly so we can review the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singh said after four months trying to have his credit line issue cleared up with Scotiabank, he contacted CTV News. <\/p>\n
After CTV News reached out to Scotiabank on his behalf, the $35,000 credit line was completely refunded, which was great news for Singh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a great relief to have this dealt with,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n
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According to Equifax, 0.91 per cent of all credit card applications are fraudulent. for every 100,000 credit card applications, almost 1,000 are submitted by scammers. According to Equifax, 0.91 per cent of all credit card applications are fraudulent. for every 100,000 credit card applications, almost 1,000 are submitted by scammers. Credit card fraud is on the rise: Equifax Canada <\/p>\n
New statistics show credit card application fraud has increased by eight per cent over last year, with almost one percent of all applications considered fraudulent. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a major increase in that space, and it\u2019s primarily driven by identity theft,\u201d said Carl Davies, head of Fraud and Identity at Equifax Canada. <\/p>\n
According to Equifax, 0.91 per cent of all credit card applications are fraudulent, and while that may not sound like a big number, it means for every 100,000 credit card applications, almost 1,000 are submitted by scammers.<\/p>\n
Davies said criminals use your personal information to open credit cards, loans, and lines of credit in your name, which is why it\u2019s important to monitor bank accounts and your credit report carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are inquiries on your files that you didn\u2019t make, that\u2019s one of the first triggers to go out (to your bank) and say, \u2018This wasn\u2019t me. Please, can you help?\u201d said Davies.<\/p>\n
Criminals are combing through the internet trying to scrape together enough information to steal your identity. The most common way they get it is sending you fraudulent links to click on.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are clicking on links they shouldn\u2019t be. They are using QR codes they shouldn\u2019t and following up on text messages they shouldn\u2019t. These things can grab your personal information, and then fraudsters can use that information to apply for information (credit) in your name,\u201d said Davies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New statistics show credit card application fraud has increased by eight per cent over the last year. Pat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[712,51759,49,48],"class_list":["post-921015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brampton","tag-apple-news","tag-brampton","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}