Some of the Telus customers affected by a recent data breach have said they were told by company employees that the email notification they received was fraudulent and should be deleted. That email was sent out to alert customers that “unauthorized individuals” had been able to access account information such as their name, billing address and phone number, as well as the last four digits of their payment card on file. It also included a unique PIN allowing those affected to activate two years of complimentary identity theft protection. Larry Stevenson, a senior from New Westminster, told CTV News he received the email last week but found it suspicious, so he approached the Telus kiosk in Royal City Centre on Friday to confirm its legitimacy. Stevenson said an employee told him: “I don’t know anything about it.” He later called a Telus help line, and said someone assured him over the phone that the message was fraudulent and could be deleted. “He checked it out, goes through my account and says, ‘We have not sent you an email since Aug. 18,’ which is probably one of my bills,” Stevenson recalled. “He says, ‘Just delete it, it’s spam.’” Another Telus customer told CTV News she had a similar experience after calling the company and speaking with someone who apparently had no knowledge about the breach either. Asked about the mixed messaging, the company’s director of public affairs acknowledged there had been a problem, but said it has since been corrected. “An unfortunate technical issue resulted in a very small number of customers being told to disregard the notification they received from us,” Richard Gilhooley said in a statement. Customers who received an email notification about the breach can reach out to the company if they are concerned about its veracity, he added. CTV News asked Gilhooley for more information on the technical issue, and how it related to miscommunication both in person and on the phone. This story will be updated if a response is received. According to the emails affected customers received, the breach took place sometime “between February 2025 and June 2026,” and the compromised credentials used have since been “terminated.” “These individuals may have used your account information to contact you in an attempt to persuade you to move your services away from TELUS towards competitors, and/or made unauthorized changes to your TELUS services,” the notification reads. Telus has not revealed how many accounts were accessed, but said it was a small number. The free identity protection offered by the company must be claimed by Nov. 30. CTV News is owned by Bell Media, which is a subsidiary of BCE Inc.
