Recently, I went into my own bank profile and found there was a Mastercard on my profile. I didn't have a Mastercard and I never applied for a Mastercard. I didn't know anything about Mastercard. I had a staff Visa. I contacted the bank and asked why I had this Mastercard. They said, “It's free.” I said, “I don't care. It has a zero balance. It's never been used. Take it off my profile.” They said, “But it's good for your profile. It's good for your credit profile for you to have that on it.” I said, “No, no, no. I didn't apply for this Mastercard. Take it off.”
I was having a discussion with somebody earlier today who said the same thing had happened to them. What it was is the bank had bought a Sears credit card customer list. I'd had a Sears credit card for about three weeks five years ago and all of a sudden, that turned into an active credit card on my Scotiabank profile. I never signed anything for it and I didn't want it. It took them three months to get it off my profile. I asked for a written letter from the bank stating that they had put this card on my profile without my knowledge or permission, but they wouldn't put it in writing. They wouldn't talk to me by email. They would only talk to me on the phone.