Four Barrington residents victims of bank fraud

Barrington police were presented with four new cases of bank fraud and identity theft recently.

On Saturday, March 25, a Richmond Avenue resident contacted police after her credit card company alerted her to suspicious activity with her account. The company said several questionable purchases were made against her account; the resident said she did not authorize any of the transactions in question.

That same day, a Birch Road resident contacted police after he learned his bank account had been "drained." The resident told officers he stopped by a Barrington bank and planed to make a payment for his son's college student housing, when he realized money from the account was missing. Officials at the bank traced the fraudulent withdrawal to a Maryland branch of the same bank.

A day earlier, a Grant Street resident discovered a fraudulent bank transaction of a different kind — the resident told police that someone had deposited an IRS income tax refund check totaling $4,178 into her account. There was just one problem: She had not yet filed her tax return. The resident told police she believed the transaction was part of a scam. 

On Monday March 20, a Hope Court resident told police he received two letters — one from Target and the other from Home Depot — alerting him to the fact that someone had tried to open store credit cards using his personal information. Both attempts had failed. However, a third attempt to open a fraudulent Kohl's store credit card account using the man's information had gone through. A little less than $1,000 had already been charged to the account.