Citigroup, 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.
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.
Source news.com, & Associated Press
Well, is this something we all should fear? I do think so; and here's why?
Al Taqwa bank, part of a network of financial companies named by the Bush administration as a major source and distributor of funds for Osama bin Laden's terrorist operations, has shareholders that include prominent Arab figures from numerous countries in the Middle East. Al Taqwa was a so-called "hawala" operation (an informal word-of-mouth system that keeps no records and relies on trust) that facilitated transfers of cash between agents worldwide. The bank also used correspondent accounts : accounts that banks have in other banks -- to transmit cash to its agents.
Source: salon.com.
Also read The Counterterrorism Blog
So: Now you DO remember Sept 11 dont you ?. Well, Read this
Citigroup owns 23 percent of Saudi American Bank, the second- largest Saudi bank, known as Samba. ``Samba follows the same anti- money laundering rules as Citi, but it also complies with local (Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency) regulations,'' said Andrea Hurst, a spokeswoman for Citigroup.
So: In short, Citigroup is owned by Saudi Arabians, or am I making this up ?? Well, I have been told that a majority of the shareholders in Citigroup ARE Saudi Arabians. I am not so sure on whether this is true or not, However, you could research this for me and post your findings here.
So anyway, why am I posting CitiBank's Boo Boo alongwith references to Sept 11th, Well, I Just hope it's not true, BUT, If CitiBank has lost huge volumes of it's customer data, AND if Saudi's DO have a huge stake in CitiBank, and IF this lost Data falls into the hands of folks that it was not meant to be, Well, Houston we sure do have a problem.
Remember those Phishing emails we all receive, Well, expect that number to just increase from now on. Citibank is the largest financial group in the world and has long been a target for computer criminals. Computer criminals use "phishing" to gather confidential information from bank customers. But this "lost tapes" episode makes it all the more easy for them. There already has been a "HIT"
All said and done; If YOU happen to be a citibank customer and are worried about this; CitiFinancial is inviting customers to enroll via a toll-free number, 1-888-469-8603, in a free credit monitoring service for 90 days.
You are just jumping to conclusions here. Citibank MAY be having not too good a history with their links to funding and investment sources, but I believe that they are responsible enough to not intentionally let this lost data fall into the hands of terrorists. They make blunders like everybody else, but the inference I get from reading your post is that you are trying to say that this is was intentional loss. IF so. You are wrong. But youre' on the money regarding the phishing. Citibank customers can request citibank NOT to send email communication and stick to the regular paper trail and then use a filter in their mailbox to mark every email with the word "citibank" in the content as "spam" or "phishing".
Posted by Steve Holn on June 07, 2005 at 10:09 AM EDT #
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