Cape Coral victim has fraudulent bank account opened in his name

Name, birthday and even the right driver’s license number. That is how a stranger opened a bank account in a Cape Coral man’s name.

Cape Coral Police Department is investigating that case after a man claims someone stole his personal information, then made a fake Regions Bank account.

“It’s definitely stealing someone’s identity,” said Cape Coral Police Dept. Lt. Allan Kolak, “because if it’s not you opening that account, somebody has all of your information to be able to open it.”

Initially, the victim told police he received a letter in the mail from Regions Bank. It informed the victim that someone had opened a bank account for him. Troubling to the man because he has never had an account with the bank.

When he stopped by a bank, a teller told him someone online knew his name, address, date of birth and even his driver’s license information.

“They can actually get a whole bunch of different credit cards,” Lt. Kolak said, “because it’s basically a stolen identity.”

In an email to WINK News, Regions Bank said it “employ[s] a number of security systems, which monitor accounts and transactions for suspicious activity.” The bank said it is committed to helping clients protect themselves from identity theft and account takeover.

Since whoever opened the fake account did so online, the victim was told there are no surveillance videos or pictures to help track down the scammer.

Giovanni Troche is a computer expert in Cape Coral. He said if scammers stole this information from a computer, it is unfortunately not impossible.

“People they leave their computers on all night and they go to sleep and you know people break in through the firewall,” Troche said. “They go into your computers, snoop around, see what they can get and then they leave. And you never know they were even there.”