Citigroup blames UPS for loss of customer data

If you have an account at Citibank or its affiliated companies -- and millions of us do -- look out. Some brown-clad meathead at UPS lost tapes with some very important information:

Citigroup Inc. Monday said computer tapes containing account and payment history data, including Social Security numbers, on 3.9 million customers were lost by United Parcel Service Inc. The disappearance is the latest in a series of reported data breaches involving U.S. companies, including Bank of America Corp. and Time Warner Inc. New York-based Citigroup said UPS, the world's biggest package carrier, lost the tapes while shipping them to an Experian credit bureau in Texas.

Whoops! Butterfingers! If you're nervous about this little mishap, sign up for credit monitoring:

CitiFinancial is inviting customers to enroll via a toll-free number, 1-888-469-8603, in a free credit monitoring service for 90 days. It said it earlier enrolled the customers in a separate service to help prevent identity theft.

Hopefully the Citi folks won't lose the credit monitoring information, too.