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| Computer tapes containing the personal information of nearly four million CitiFinancial customers were recently stolen during a routine delivery to the credit bureaus.
Citigroup announced that a box of tapes from the consumer lending unit was lost while in the possession of the United Parcel Service. A copy of the letter sent out to 3.9 million customers whose information was on the tapes was included along with the announcement. The stolen tapes contained the names, Social Security numbers, account numbers and payment history information of CitiFinancial Retail Services customers, most of whom had personal or debt consolidation loans, according to CitiFinancial spokesman Rob Juliavitz. The stolen data did not include information on CitiFinancial Mortgage customers, the announcement said. The computer tapes were reportedly en-route to credit bureaus as part of a monthly process, according to the company. However, “we have no reason to believe that this information has been used inappropriately and we have not received any reports of unauthorized activity regarding your credit or loan,” CitiFinancial said. Additionally, “there is little risk of the accounts being compromised because customers have already received their loans, and no additional credit may be obtained from CitiFinancial without prior approval of our customers, either by initiating a new application or by providing positive proof of identification,” said Kevin Kessinger, a Citigroup executive vice president, in the announcement. CitiFinancial said customers were already enrolled in its free identity theft protection service, but it suggested that they sign up for a third-party-provided credit monitoring service it would pay for 90 days. In July, the subprime lender started sending customers’ data electronically in encrypted form, according to the announcement. |
Coco Salazar is an assistant editor and staff writer for MortgageDaily.com. E-mail: [email protected]
