B.C.'s consumer watchdog is now probing a fitness club whose employees were recorded in a CTV News hidden camera investigation making dubious claims about their credentials while trying to sell personal training contracts.

Consumer Protection BC has already made contact with Gold's Gym and is asking anyone who feels they may have been under pressure to sign a contract with Gold's Gym to call them, said Vice-President Manjit Bains.

"We're urging customers to come forward in this matter if they have issues with their contracts or are concerned about undue pressure they were put under to enter these contracts," said Bains.

Last week, CTV News recorded two employees of Gold's Gym franchises claiming to have university degrees in kinesiology as part of a sales pitch for personal training that costs as much as $243 a month.

When asked to provide proof of those credentials, gym manager Andre Nite initially confirmed that the degrees existed. But later he said that one employee admitted that she hadn't finished her degree, while another refused to provide credentials, saying he resigned from the gym for personal reasons.

A former employee, Lewis Hart, claimed that he was encouraged to exaggerate his credentials – a claim the company strenuously denied.

Gold's Gym owner Victor Newman told CTV News that he has disciplined the employees involved and said the problem was limited to them.

Bains said Consumer Protection BC will investigate whether the company broke B.C.'s consumer protection laws regarding contracts and deceptive behavior. The agency can levy as much as a $5,000 fine for an individual and a $50,000 fine for a business.

"We watched the CTV story with interest," Bains said. "We have opened up a file and are reviewing the matter."

After the CTV News story aired, NDP public safety critic Kathy Corrigan called on the consumer agency to do something.

"The [Business Practices and Consumer Protection] Act is very clear that if somebody is deceptive in their practices and it causes people to spend money that they may otherwise not spend, that they're being pulled in, then absolutely, I think it's wrong and it should be investigated," Corrigan said.

Minister of Labour Margaret MacDiarmid also pointed out that an upcoming change in law would make it easier to check on university degrees.

Right now, privacy law prevents universities from sharing that information, because a person's degree is viewed as educational history, which is considered personal information.

MacDiarmid said the new law would allow universities to confirm or deny a degree.

The change was considered to make it easier to check on health care professionals who might be practicing without a degree and putting the public at risk, she said.

"If you're claiming that you have kinesiology training and you don't have any, there could be a serious public safety element to that as well," she said.

"It's important that if you have a credential of a certain kind the credential can be confirmed."