Security ... think about it!
The couple, who run a home-based bookkeeping, accounting and computer programming business, have been customers of Citizens Financial, which is based in Illinois, for 30 years. They maintained personal and business checking accounts with the bank as well as a $30,000 home equity line of credit, which was linked to the business checking account. [The judge's ruling indicates the credit line was $50,000, but the plantiffs' lawyers say this is incorrect.] In February 2007, someone with a different IP address than the couple gained access to Marsha Shames-Yeakel’s online banking account using her user name and password and initiated an electronic transfer of $26,500 from the couple’s home equity line of credit to her business account. the money was then transferred through a bank in Hawaii to a bank in Austria. The Austrian bank refused to return the money, and Citizens Financial insisted that the couple be liable for the funds and began billing them for it. when they refused to pay, the bank reported them as delinquent to the national credit reporting agencies and threatened to foreclose on their home.
