3 Oak Park families discover mysterious bank withdrawals from company they’ve never heard of

They have been capable of spot tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in mysterious withdrawals from their accounts as a result of they checked their statements. However the cash was taken by a enterprise they are saying they by no means heard of, so that they requested the ABC7 I-Staff to analyze.

They do not know one another, however their financial institution statements have related withdrawals. All of them say they skilled the identical fraud: a medical firm withdrew cash from their accounts, with a mixed whole of greater than $40,000.

The big sums of cash have been taken immediately out of the three Oak Park households’ financial institution accounts by Vollen Medical Middle.

“That despatched me into an immediate panic as a result of I instantly thought, ‘Oh no, did we cost one thing accidentally? What occurred?’” Audrey Barrientos advised the I-Staff.

When she obtained a low steadiness warning from her financial institution, PNC, she logged in to discover a practically $10,000 withdrawn by Vollen.

The financial institution could not cease the transaction as a result of it was a direct debit.

“They utilized our full financial institution and full routing account numbers, and my husband’s identify, to take away the cash,” Barrientos stated.

That very same month, Andy Carey had greater than $22,000 taken from his Chase accounts withdrawn by Vollen Medical Middle. Carey’s financial institution stated they could not cease it both.

“Very unsettling,” he stated. “It did not really feel prefer it was any safer than hiding it beneath the mattress or placing it in a protected in the home.”

Oak Parker Laura Riff’s USAA checking account had practically $10,000 immediately withdrawn by Vollen.

“We do not understand how somebody received that data,” she stated.

Riff and Barrientos’ banks investigated and a number of other days later returned the cash, however their accounts have been practically drained throughout that point.

Carey stated his financial institution, Chase, didn’t ship a refund, however when the I-Staff received concerned Chase stated: “We reviewed Mr. Carey’s case and made positive his funds have been returned. We additionally apologized for any preliminary confusion as a result of a reproduction declare submitting.”

“Quickly as you attempt to hit the pillow, your thoughts races to all of the issues that you simply’re making an attempt to determine,” Carey stated. “The way it occurred, and to strive to determine the way to stop it from occurring sooner or later.”

All three customers discovered one another after posting their conditions on Fb. They started a seek for the Vollen Medical Middle however all they discovered was a Google tackle saying it was within the West Loop.

“Nobody ever answered,” stated Riff. “The telephone simply rings.”

“And on additional investigation, their location or the tackle wasn’t even a medical heart,” added Barrientos.

The I-Staff went to the listed tackle for Vollen Medical Middle, a shared workplace area. We spoke to managers right here on this constructing and so they say that Vollen has by no means had a medical facility right here, however they solely use the area to get mail.

The Illinois Division of Public Well being says it has no report of a Vollen Medical Middle as a registered supplier with the state.

We emailed a contact at Vollen Medical and obtained a response from a “Ms. Dixie, Operation Supervisor” saying Vollen by no means payments shoppers until providers are rendered.

The e-mail went on to say, “I reprimand you from operating any fictitious tales on Vollen Medical with out due course of is completed to resolve the matter.

“Ms. Dixie” provided to look into the fees after we provided every particular person’s identify and quantity charged. The customers stated they by no means heard from Vollen.

The I-Staff additionally known as one other contact for the corporate, however by no means heard again.

“Once I discovered there have been folks locally that had related conditions occur, it made me much more nervous as a result of I believed, nicely, who stole our data?” stated Barrientos. “I felt very violated.”

The households nonetheless do not understand how Vollen was capable of get their non-public banking data.

However one financial institution stated it is potential that in circumstances like these, customers offered routing and account numbers to a different enterprise identify which they thought was legit. Or, their data might have been compromised from one other vendor, who had their routing and account numbers.

“And if you do not know the way it occurred, it is arduous to discover a answer to stop it from occurring once more,” Carey added.

Banks say customers must be conscious that routing numbers and account numbers are additionally on bodily checks which will be stolen from a mailbox or from a enterprise.