Consumer complaint received 2024-03-07
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Opening an account — Account opened without my consent or knowledge
Company: Chime Financial Inc (NY)

Summary - Chime opened a bank account for someone using my email address without verifying they owned the email address - Chime would not confirm whether this was a case of identity theft ( using my SSN ) or someone using the wrong email address/mistyping their email address - Chimes new login security emails do not contain information about the login ( device and location are left blank, IP address is not supplied ) References : Chime support ticket XXXX Routing number : XXXX Account number : XXXX On XX/XX/2024 person ( s ) unknown opened an account at Chime ( Chime Financial , Inc. ) This account was opened using my email address, XXXX and a telephone number ending in XXXX. 

Chime failed to confirm ownership of the email address and allowed the account to be created. 

As a result, I received multiple email messages from Chime : Welcome to Chime Your direct deposit info Youre one step away from Credit Builder! 

I immediately notified Chime by email that I had not opened the account. I asked them to determine if : Someone had opened an account and accidentally supplied my email address, or Someone was attempting to impersonate me or commit identity theft [ I attempted to reach Chime by chat support. Doing so closed my email support request. This is a bad practice. ] Chime then closed this bank account and confirmed the closure via email. They sent me a generic anti-fraud message suggesting that I place a fraud alert on my credit, review my credit report, visit IdentityTheft.gov and make a police report.

I sent the following message to Chime : 1 My credit is already frozen. That doesn't prevent the opening of bank accounts.

2 Without knowing which SSN was used, I can't tell if this was fraud or just someone typing the wrong email address. How can we confirm that?

3 Will you fix your signup process to confirm email addresses before allowing account creation.

Chime requested I send them my SSN and IdentityTheft.gov report.

I reiterated to them that we didnt yet know if identity theft had occurred.

Chime again requested I send them my SSN and IdentityTheft.gov report. ( Same message as before. ) I indicated to Chime that I was uncomfortable sending them PII, as I was not their customer, they failed to disclose what security and data retention practices would cover the submitted information, and that they had been irresponsible in allowing the account to be created in the first.

Chime requested for a third time I send them my SSN and IdentityTheft.gov report. The message contained confusing and irrelevant language : Thank you for reaching out to the Chime Member Protection Team. We are sorry to hear about the difficulty you're experiencing with your Chime account. 

I dont have an account ; I was not having trouble with my account ; the account had been closed. 


As of XX/XX/2024, Chime has not responded and never confirmed or denied whether the account was opened using my SSN. They also have not indicated they now require proof of ownership of an email address when opening a bank account.