For the second time this year, Citigroup has suffered a major breach of its credit customers’ personal information; this time the breach involved 92,400 customers at its Japanese unit. Citigroup's Japanese credit card unit said personal information for more than 92,000 of its customers was illegally sold to a third party.
The information exposed included the names, account numbers addresses, phone numbers birthdates, and sex of 92,408 credit card holders, Citi Cards Japan warned in an advisory (PDF) issued Friday. The personal identification numbers and card security codes were not accessed.
Citi Cards Japan did not mention how customer information was obtained as the sale of such information is currently under investigation. “While the risk of fraud is minimal due to the absence of security information, CCJ has placed internal fraud alerts and enhanced monitoring on all accounts identified, and no unusual or suspicious credit cards transactions relating to these customers have been detected at this point,” according to Citi Card Japan’s statement.
However, Citigroup disclosed that credit card customers had $2.7 million stolen from their accounts as a result of the June data breach. While victimized customers can get new account numbers and aren't responsible for unauthorized charges, consumers have become increasingly wary of how their information is handled by big companies, especially those that handle their money.
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