Heads up folks: This means that if you are (or have been) a Citibank customer, Your name, address, social security number, and probably birth date and Citibank credit account numbers for 3,900,000 customers is probably now in identity thieves hands. I would assume it, unless proven otherwise. If you fall into this category:1) Citibank is required to notify you that YOUR personal data has been confiscated...I wouldn't wait from "the letter", I'd call them now! and
2) Close your Citibank credit account, and ask for a new account number.
3) You should immediately call all 3 credit bureaus to have your account flagged for potential identity theft. The FTC's web site on Credit This will slow down the process for opening new credit accounts, but no new accounts should be opened unless you have been contacted FIRST, by letter or by phone, to confirm that YOU opened the account, not someone else...same with address changes.
4) Sign up with a credit monitoring company like: Free Credit Report and Score to get periodic updates alerting you to new activity on your account.
(This has been happening so much lately, it almost makes me think that an organization is behind it.....like Al Quada maybe?)
CITIBANK SAYS DATA FOR 3.9M CUSTOMERS LOST!!
Date: Monday, 6 June 2005, 1:47 p.m.
One day we could just hear that some hacker-terrorists have broken in and completely destroyed every major banking database. Are you ready for that?
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Citigroup says data for 3.9M customers lost
By Jonathan Stempel
20 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C - news), the world's largest bank, on Monday said account and payment history data on 3.9 million of its customers were lost in transit by United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE:UPS - news).ADVERTISEMENT
The disappearance is the latest in a series of data breaches involving U.S. banks, including No. 2 Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC - news).
New York-based Citigroup said the data were stored on computer tapes, and lost while UPS, the world's biggest package carrier, was shipping them to an Experian credit bureau in Texas.
The tapes, which also contained Social Security numbers, covered CitiFinancial Branch Network customers and about 50,000 customers with closed accounts from CitiFinancial Retail Services. Customers of CitiFinancial Auto and CitiFinancial Mortgage are unaffected........
SECRET SERVICE INVOLVED
Citigroup said its missing tapes were shipped from Weehawken, New Jersey on May 2. It said it first learned of a possible problem on May 20 when Experian called to request a tracking number.
The bank said Experian and UPS advised it on May 24 that they could not locate the tapes. Citigroup said it notified the U.S. Secret Service on May 27 after an internal investigation. That agency did not immediately return a call seeking comment....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050606/bs_nm/financial_citigroup_tapes_dc