In the last several weeks, the Medina Police Department has received reports of at least five residents who have had fraudulent activity occur on their Bank of America accounts.

The pattern in these cases is the identity thief gains access to the victim’s information and fraudulently logs into the victim’s account online.

Once inside, the suspect transfers money into the victim’s account from a fraudulent account, then transfers the funds back out a short time later. This may occur once or twice. Once the transfers have gone through without drawing attention, the suspect begins transferring funds out of the victim’s account and into the fraudulent account, then immediately uses the funds for purchases or uses an ATM to access the cash.

In many of these cases, the fraudulent accounts are established with an out of state address in Massachusetts, police say.

The Medina Police Department is urging residents to watch their accounts closely for any unauthorized activity, particularly those who have accounts with Bank of America.