A WARNING is being issued to others to check their bank accounts often after three people said they had thousands of dollars vanish out of nowhere.
The customers say they could spot the withdrawals from their accounts after checking their statements but the money was taken from a business they never heard of.
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Laura Riff, Andy Carey, and Audrey Barrientos didn’t know each other at first, but their bank statements had a similar issue, with tens of thousands being removed from their accounts.
It was the same scheme: a medical company was withdrawing money from their accounts with a combined total of more than $40,000.
The money was taken directly from their accounts by Vollen Medical Center.
“That sent me into an instant panic because I immediately thought, ‘Oh no, did we charge something by accident? What happened?'” Barrientos told ABC.
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She received a low balance warning from PNC Bank in May 2022 and logged in to find that $10,000 had been withdrawn by Vollen.
Barrientos said the bank couldn’t stop the transaction because it was a direct debit.
“They utilized our full bank and full routing account numbers, and my husband’s name, to remove the money,” she said.
Later that same month, Carey had more than $22,000 taken from his Chase accounts, also withdrawn by Vollen Medical Center.
Chase told Carey they couldn’t stop the transaction either.
“Very unsettling,” he said. “It didn’t feel like it was any safer than hiding it under the mattress or putting it in a safe in the house.”
Riff’s USAA bank account had nearly $10,000 directly withdrawn by the medical center.
“We don’t know how someone got that information,” she told the outlet.
Riff and Barrientos’ banks investigated the matter and their money was returned several days later, however, their accounts were nearly drained during that time.
At first, Carey said his bank didn’t send a refund but after ABC 7’s investigative team got involved, the bank released a statement: “We reviewed Mr. Carey’s case and made sure his funds were returned. We also apologized for any initial confusion due to a duplicate claim filing.”
Carey is still trying to wrap his head around the whole situation.
“Soon as you try to hit the pillow, your mind races to all the things that you’re trying to figure out,” he said.
“How it happened, and to try to figure out how to prevent it from happening in the future.”
Carey, Riff, and Barrientos found each other after posting their plights on Facebook.
The trio began researching the Vollen Medical Center but all they found was a Google address in the West Loop neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois.
They tried calling the address but Riff said that nobody had ever answered.
“The phone just rings,” she said.
“And on further investigation, their location or the address wasn’t even a medical center,” added Barrientos.
The address for the medical center was for a shared office space but when ABC spoke to the managers, they said Vollen never had a medical facility there.
The space was only used to receive mail.
The Illinois Department of Public Health told the outlet that no record of a Vollen Medical Center was registered as a provider for the state.
A Google search listed the medical center as “permanently closed.”
“Fake company developed for fraudulent purposes,” read a review.
“Has stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the bank accounts of people who have never used their services.”
“When I found out there were people in the community that had similar situations happen, it made me even more nervous because I thought, well, who stole our information?” said Barrientos. “I feel very violated.”
The families said they still don’t know how Vollen was able to access their private banking information.
Experts believe it’s possible that consumers provided their routing and account numbers to another business, thinking it was legitimate.
Or their information could have been compromised by another vendor.
“And if you don’t know how it happened, it’s hard to find a solution to prevent it from happening again,” said Carey.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Vollen Medical Center for comment.
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