The loss of the tape had been being investigated by ABN Amro, which is reviewing its tape handling procedures to ensure such losses won't happen again. The company also said initially that it would enroll its residential mortgage customers in a credit monitoring service for 90 days at no cost. That time frame was extended to a year Tuesday.

'We and other lenders routinely provide this information to credit reporting companies to ensure your credit record is up-to-date,' the company had said in its letter last week.

One IT manager whose mortgage information was lost and who received a letter notifying him of the missing tape, said that while it may have been a shipping slip up, he is frustrated that no matter how careful he is about identify theft, he's 'at the mercy of other entities out there.'

The manager said his company, which he asked not to be identified, has a half billion dollars in revenue and performs data replication across private T1s to a disaster recovery site, encrypting that data as it's sent. While his company also sends tapes off site, it employs its own couriers for better control, he said.

'Last time I looked, Fedex and UPS state that on their shipping forms in spite of insurance, if something is truly valuable to you (eg non-replaceable) you shouldn't use their services -- sure seems like people's identities fall into this category,' he wrote.