Woman accused of stealing $165K in elaborate bank fraud scheme targeting Bay Area credit unions arrested
ATLANTA, Ga. - A woman accused in a string of bank fraud cases around the Bay Area has been captured in Georgia.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said Coretta Bates, 31, is accused of stealing $165,000 from a chain of credit unions.
Investigators say she baited banks by opening accounts that offered either free lines of credit or account bonuses. They say she used bogus ID cards from North Carolina to get Suncoast Credit Unions to give money to nonexistent people. However, they have not said how many Suncoast Credit Union locations they believe she has ripped off.
In October, HCSO asked the public to help them track down several suspects in a $270,000 bank fraud case.
Photos courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
At that time, deputies said the suspects used multiple counterfeit North Carolina driver's licenses to open numerous bank accounts in the Bay Area, all featuring one person's picture, to commit fraud.
"The banks are not the victim here," Sheriff Chad Chronister said in October. "The people who are going to be the victim is everyone who does business with that bank because they're going to pass that loss on to the customers."
Bank fraud suspect Coretta Bates was arrested in Georgia. Image is courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
On Monday, HCSO identified Bates as the woman organizing the scheme.
Two days later, HCSO announced Bates’ arrest on federal warrants for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
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