I got a call from Scotiabank last month stating that one of their employees was caught selling client information and that I need to contact Equifax and Trans Union to put a fraud alert on my account.  I just got the report 3 days ago and surprise I am a victim of identity theft!  It shows that I am living in a completely different city, my work history is different, I've tried applying for many different credit cards, banking, bell mobility and they were able to get one credit card for $1000.00 (thank god that's all they were able to get!).  Now I'm going through a pretty gruesome process and it's not even my fault.  It's their mistake, but my clean up...that's just not right.

How the hell can this be a legit phone call from Scotiabank if I don't even have an account with them?  Right.  Wreaks of scam.  I get these all the time.

Scotiabank offered me a credit alert for 1 yr. at no charge...can you believe this...for 1 yr...it should be for life!

I got a call aswell, in June, then today received a letter from them. Letter looked really fake. my freind also got a call LOL but he doesnt even have an account at scotiabank. SWITCH your bank accounts to TD or RBC save your time and $$$$$

BS i say..i called the number and before I even had time to say hello he was asking for my bank card number....ya right!

3 CD Roms missing??? are you kidding me? Saturday June 25/11 I received a phone call from 888-353-6841 claiming that 3 CD Roms have gone missing with my personal banking information on them. This call came through on an unidentified toll free number. Unprofessional communication in this day. I am extremely angry and am considering moving to another bank. Please Explain!!!!
My question is this: WHY WOULDN'T THIS BE COMMUNICATED ON THE SCOTIA ONLINE BANKING MESSAGE SERVICE??? I checked there as soon as I hung up from the unidentified toll free number. Nothing posted. Freaked out and very disappointed in Scotia Bank.

We got the call just now. I give them credit for taking proactivity of calling all of their customers informing them upfront, they could as well just not tell anyone and try to hide it. They just gained our respect. I believe they call on saturdays too as they are open and they are trying to reach as many people as possible. Please be nice to them !

Thanks Al.

Hey Everyone

Call the number on the back of the scotia bank card, have the person on the other end transfer you to this number.  It is legit, they want to inform you they misplaced some CDS that held some of your investment info as well as sin number.

I can confirm that scotia bank has lost 3 cd's.  I called the Toronto office at 1-877-700-0043 and they confirm they have lost internally (so they Say) 3 cd's.  They gave me a number of places to call to protect my credit for the next 5 years. In the places i called there was TransUnion Credit, Equifax and finally Credit Alert plus.  This is not a minor thing and everybody better take action to protect themselves.  Call your bank or the number I gave you, this is serious stuff.  And to comment the person saying an incompetent employee, I fear it's a person that knows what he or she was doing, they did not Encript the Cd's before they sent them to Who knows where. So all the information is easy to access.

Yes this is a legitimate call. I called the number on the back of my scotiabank card and they were able to say that the 18883536841 is from their department. They verified that I was supposed to be called by looking at my account. They even said the phone number before I asked! It's totally legit!

With online banking messaging, emails, and the resources Scotiabank has at their disposal, they definitely could have done a better job of advising their customers in a more timely matter. Millions of customers or not... they screwed up and should be doing a better job of rectifying the problem. You sound like you could be one of the bank's INCOMPETENT employees that caused something like this to happen.

Yes it was Scotia Bank.  I never call the number the leave on the answering machine.  I called the # on the back of my bank card and they advised me it was a legit call.  They said the same thing about losing a disk...

You do realize that Scotiabank has MILLIONS of customers and a "small percentage" could still be upwards of hundreds of thousands of people... right? How easy is it for them to call hundreds of thousands of people? I'm very suprised people do not exercise common sense when they post comments.

Thanks for your reply. But 1-888-353-6841 is not on the back of the card. That's what I am worried about. I did a search online, called Scotiabank, so far no one can confirm if this number is from Scotiabank.

Even if calling this number returns a Scotiabank message, it's not good enough from me I'm afraid.

called bank and they are going to pay for a credit check for a year.This means noone can use my sin without me being notified,Ask your bank about it

Class action?? On what grounds?  Damages?  What damages?  People have to be realistic.  When it comes to information required to open a bank account or in this case, to have a registered account (RSP, RIF, LIRA, LIF), that information required is set out by the government and it's the government that needs the information reported to them from the banks via CD-ROM.  Yes the CDs went missing, but with information everywhere, how much information on a daily basis do you think goes missing?  Tonnes, just no one says anything.  I agree that the big bank is at fault for loosing the CDs, but as long as customers are diligent with their accounts, reviewing activity, pulling a credit bureau each year of every 6 months to review, then you can play your part to protect yourself too.  I do it all the time.  I had a forclosure on my credit bureau when I was 7!  Since I found out (when I was 18) I've pulled my bureau every year.  Make sure you have your credit bureau flagged with ID Lost/SIN Lost etc.  Any lender that gives out credit cards will see that flag.  People are correct in their writings, not to give information over the phone to anyone.

feel that way to,whats going to happen I wonder,people are talking about suing.Don't feel safe now with this bank.Seeing the bank tommorrow and I am considering changing banks

Just got the same call on June 18th. If only a "small percentage" of customers were affected as quoted in The Canadian Press, and they are "calling around the clock", it seems it's a HUGE problem if they're still calling people 15 days after the first post on this site on June 3rd. You're think with the income they generate and the fees they steal from their customers, they could at least protect our information!!!

I feel so violated,had such a bad weekend thinking about this.I feel like I have spent the last twenty years building up good credit and now in a blink of a eye scotia is screwing it up.What can I do to protect myself.Do we have a lawsuit?Talking to my bank tomorrow if they offer me something should I take it?Hope they find the Cds had no prblems before with bank.

I just got this call too....but I was in to the bank on Tuesday AND spoke to a banking office yesterday and she said nothing to me.  Considering the very first thing this woman asked for was my card number, I will be calling the bank on Monday.

I want compensation for my time during the dealings with SB and all other org's! This is unacceptable!

CLASS ACTION in the near future!

If you are a Scotiabank customer and have a Scotiabank debit or credit card, and it's a card that you've successfully used in the past to transact business with third parties (like you've used the card successfully to buy stuff from Amazon), then it's perfectly safe to believe the phone number on the back of the card is a Scotiabank number.

You are absolutely correct in your reasoning. Scammers could be taking advantage of this news story, pretend to be Scotiabank and phish info from unsuspecting victims.

"don't give anything over the phone" is absolutely the correct response!

You were right in refusing to provide confidential personal info to a stranger who calls you. Scammer shills do come on 800notes and post fake positive posts (like yours!) so positive posts on 800notes should *not* be considered fail-safe-accurate. Always contact the bank using contact info from the back of their card or other independent means like a phone book but *never* from positive 800notes comments. Sure you're not a shill?

I am paranoid about this kind of things, so I'd even question even if I called this number and they claim to be Scotiabank. I wonder if they're real Scotiabank. Yes I am like that.

I called to confirm, they couldn't really tell me if this number is really a Scotiabank number or not.

Anyone can confirm that? Again, just by saying it's Scotiabank on the other end of the phone won't do it for me.  :(

But is this number a legit number? 1-888-353-6841

This is a legit call . Called the number in the back of the checking card and the call was legit.