Sylvia Knilans, suspect in alleged credit card fraud of fitness clients (police photo).
Sylvia Knilans, 34, owner of Body Empowered Fitness, has been charged with unlawful use of a credit card, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
A customer noticed a $3,000 charge after expecting a $500 charge and asked about the discrepancy. Knilans responded by showing the customer an alleged fraudulent form with the customer’s signature authorizing the $3,000 in payments.
Investigators discovered that a signature from a health disclosure form was copied and pasted onto another form authorizing the additional payments.
Cook County prosecutors had already charged Sylvia Knilans for allegedly committing fraud with two other clients with an amount of $1,700 on their credit cards.
Knilans, of the 400 block of Vine Street in Wilmette, was ordered held on $50,000 bail on Friday December 16, 2011. Knilans is scheduled for another court date on December 29, 2011 in Skokie.
The Better Business Bureau on December 17, 2011 listed eight customer complaints involving problem with Billing/Collection Issues (5) and Problems with Product/Service (3).
The suspect’s website (http://www.bodyinpower.com) lists different memberships from two sessions per week, to three sessions per week, to unlimited weekly sessions. On Saturday, December 17, 2011 the link to a cancellation PDF form for the memberships, referred to http://meierfoltz.com — a domain that is listed for sale.
Body in Power is listed on Google at 2679 Shermer Rd Northbrook, IL 60062 (via phone number search 847-322-5667).
The official website listed locations at 3656 N Halsted, Chicago; 2679 Shermer Road, Northbrook, IL; and 552 Lincoln Ave, Winnetka, IL 60093.
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MeierFoltz was the old website company that was hired by Body Empowered. When we realized all of the negative things about the place and the owner..We stopped working with her. Meier Foltz is no longer a company, but that is why it was linked to that old server