A Halifax-area woman says one of Canada's two credit reporting agencies confused her with another person, which resulted in a damaged credit rating, a privacy breach and financial consequences.

And Jennifer Lowe said TransUnion's lack of interest in fixing its error frustrated her further.

"No one was really offering to help me at all," Lowe told CBC News, adding that she had to threaten legal action before someone escalated the issue to the department that could fix the mistake.

Lowe discovered the error on May 3 when her bank gave her the opportunity to review her credit report with TransUnion. It was 149 points lower than her score with Equifax.

That's when she realized her account contained information on another Jennifer Lowe who had the same birth date, but a different address and middle name.

'Major privacy breach'

"I could see their private information so [it was a ] major privacy breach. I could see their address, where they worked," she said.

She also could see the financial accounts connected to the other Jennifer Lowe, including credit cards and bank loans.

"I wondered, 'Could she see mine?' That was my biggest concern. Could she see my information?"' Lowe said.

She called TransUnion immediately. She said she was transferred to about 10 different people who told her they couldn't view the other woman's information on her account — and they blamed creditors for the error. That call lasted between three and four hours, Lowe said.

"They said I needed to call the creditors and tell them to stop reporting under the wrong social insurance number and the incorrect person. I thought, how is it possible that all these companies are reporting under the wrong person?"

Lowe described the customer service at TransUnion as "extremely poor" and said she spent days talking to different people.

"No one was offering to help me and I had to battle, basically, with these people in order to get to someone who would take this seriously," she said. "My financial world has been affected because of it."

She said they blamed her for not checking her credit score often enough.

"I thought, 'You need to own some responsibility with this.' Everything that I'm impacted by is because they have made mistakes."

Mistake had consequences

She said it took three weeks to get her case transferred to the special handling investigations department.

The day after the transfer, she said the other Jennifer Lowe's information was removed.

When she asked whether banks had been notified about the mistake, she alleges TransUnion staff told her they hadn't.

Then a week later, she noticed the limit on her Scotiabank credit card had been lowered by $3,500.

In a letter, the bank said the decrease was the result of a routine review of her accounts. It said it "may be based in part on information on your credit report" and suggested she contact TransUnion for details.

She said when she called TransUnion she was told there was nothing the agency could do. She alleges staff there told her that Scotiabank should have been more careful about checking the person's middle name on her credit account to ensure it was correct.

"I was blown away," she said of the response.

Bank doesn't budge, until CBC contacts it

Scotiabank refused to reinstate her credit limit despite being informed of TransUnion's mistake.

"When I called them they said it's done automatically and that there is nothing they would be able to do," Lowe said. She was told she would have to reapply for the credit.

A day after CBC News contacted Scotiabank, Lowe said she received a call from a bank executive who apologized and told her credit limit would be reinstated.

In an email to CBC, Scotiabank spokesperson Carina Ruas said the bank takes customer concerns seriously and "thoroughly reviews any instance where our customers feel we have not met their expectations."

TransUnion not answering questions

TransUnion has also apologized to Lowe. An unsigned letter from the special handling investigations unit says the mix-up resulted from a file update for another person with the same first and last name as well as the same birthdate.

"The similarity in your identifying information appears to have caused some information from the other file to report on your file," the letter reads. "The procurement and compilation of factual and statistical data in a computerized environment involving a large number of individuals leads to the possibility of errors inherent in this type of activity."

TransUnion declined an interview request and did not answer specific questions about its handling of the matter.

Instead, spokesman David Blumberg issued a written statement that said ensuring the integrity of data continues to be TransUnion's top priority. Blumberg acknowledged "mistakes do sometimes occur."

"The issue with this individual user has been corrected and was not the result of a failure or breach of our systems," Blumberg said in the statement, adding the agency "sincerely regrets any confusion or inconvenience this error may have caused."

Privacy lawyer David Fraser says companies have a legal obligation to protect personal information. (Mark Crosby/CBC)

Companies obligated to protect privacy

Privacy lawyer David Fraser said managing large amounts of information is challenging. But given the consequences of confusing the data of two individuals, "you would think that there would be a pretty diligent, thorough process in place to make sure that everybody's information is properly matched," he said.

Fraser said organizations have a legal obligation to protect information against unauthorized disclosure. Merging two separate files and disclosing one person's information to another likely violates that provision, he said — and both Jennifer Lowes could complain to the federal privacy commissioner

As for the "other" Jennifer Lowe, she only became aware her privacy had been violated when contacted by TransUnion.

It's unknown how many people with that name live in Canada, but there are 533 professionals named Jennifer Lowe on LinkedIn.

The Jennifer Lowe who contacted TransUnion initially said that while she should have checked her credit rating more often, she's lost faith in the credit bureau.

"I shouldn't have to protect myself against TransUnion," she said.