He’s not a CIBC customer. So how did a fraudster open a line of credit in his name?

A B.C. man says his credit rating has been negatively impacted after someone took out a fraudulent personal line of credit in his name.

Steve Jones says his nightmare began at the beginning of the year when a letter from CIBC arrived at his home indicating his credit privileges had been blocked.

When he contacted CIBC back in January 2025, Jones says he was told the account had been frozen due to fraud.

“I was actually in a little bit of shock because I had no idea this would happen to me,” Jones told Consumer Matters.

Jones is not a CIBC customer, but says the bank assured him it was looking into his case.

“They said yes we are aware it is highly fraudulent and we have frozen the account and an investigator will be calling you in five to 10 business days,” said Jones.

However, Jones says he didn’t hear back from CIBC.

In February, he says he received a final past-due notice in the mail from CIBC indicating almost $20K must be paid in full or his credit rating may suffer.

Jones says he reached out to CIBC again for answers.

“A month later I called. They said they had no record of me contacting them,” said Jones. “ I was doing a lot of the legwork to make sure this was getting pushed forward,” said Jones.

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However, even more concerning, Jones says the incident impacted his credit score, which fell from “good” to “fair.”

4:03 How a BC woman’s peronal information was changed at CIBC – without her knowledge

Frustrated, Steve says a CIBC representative took all his information again and instructed him to call every few days to keep track of his case. “I’m very stressed about this. Because due to this, it’s hitting my credit rating pretty bad and my credit score and I need to remortgage in September,” said Jones.

Jones says CIBC told him it would take another eight to 12 weeks to restore his credit score to good standing. However, Jones says after months of waiting he wanted to reach out to Consumer Matters for help.

“I didn’t feel I was getting anywhere”, said Jones.

CIBC stated in part: “Whenever we become aware of an issue or one is reported to us, we investigate fully and take action, as we are doing in this case including amending credit bureau records as soon as possible.

“We have sophisticated layers of security and monitoring that work effectively to prevent identify fraud, and the overall cases are very low across the millions of clients we serve…”

CIBC did not provide any further details about Jones’s fraud file stating it couldn’t comment on specific cases.

1:55 CIBC customers who got scammed warn about fake investigators

Cybersecurity expert Claudiu Popa, the CEO of Datarisk Canada says he’s skeptical.

“We have not been told that these controls are effective. It’s a reminder sophisticated does not mean effective. It doesn’t mean that they work,” said Popa.

In his opinion, Popa says Canadian financial institutions must strengthen public accountability. “Instead of vague reassurances, we need transparency about what failed and what’s being fixed,” said Popa.

After Consumer Matters reached out, Jones says he received a call from CIBC informing him his credit score would be corrected within three to five business days.