Zoe Lorenz-Boser of Edmonton says she got the phone call in October 2024 — and still hasn’t forgotten it.
The 23-year-old mechanical engineer was at work at a construction company. The caller was from a collections agency and told her she owed thousands of dollars on a credit card opened under her name. He said he knew where she lived and worked, she says, and threatened to garnish her wages, seize her car and ruin her life if she didn’t pay immediately.
"I argued to the point of frustrated crying,” said Lorenz-Boser. "Stating repeatedly that this wasn’t my debt. I’ve never opened these accounts.”
Lorenz-Boser was the victim of fraud. Someone — possibly more than one person — had taken out credit in her name at Telus, Shaw and PC Financial and racked up $20,000 in debt.
It was the beginning of an “extremely frustrating” 18-month fight to repair her credit record with Canada’s two dominant credit rating agencies, Equifax and TransUnion.
Why the hell can’t we freeze our credit in Canada. Like have we not demanded it enough.
We can… Or is this a Quebec only thing?
I had mine froze, I can’t rmbr exactly how long ago, maybe 15 years. I had someone attempt to get a credit card in my name, it ended with me having my credit locked for 7 years. I’m pretty sure the way it worked was there was a note on my credit file that I had to get a phone call before any credit was issued in my name. I was in a bank one time during this period looking for credit, the rep actually phoned my phone while I was sitting there. In Canada. I had to deal with Equifax, Transunion, and also Experian.