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Cell Phone Records for Sale

Posted by Zonk on from the privacy-is-for-congressmen dept.

tabdelgawad writes "The Washington Post has a good writeup on how 'data brokers' use various techniques to obtain cell phone records of individuals then offer them for sale to anyone who will pay. The data is obtained by either bribing phone company employees, or 'pretexting', or accessing unregistered customer accounts online. Although phone companies are the only source of this information (unlike, say SSNs which are available from many sources), one Cingular spokesman was quoted as saying that this is 'an infinitesimally small problem'."

3 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. define:pretexting by carambola5 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Calling the cell company and pretending to be the owner of the account. Since SSNs are apparently easy to acquire, access via pretexting should not be all that difficult. Of course, it is illegal.

    --
    IWARS.
    People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
  2. Be afraid, be VERY afraid by Dorsai42 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check out these guys
    http://www.datatraceusa.com/products.asp/

    You can get pretty much anything related to cell phones. Expensive, but available.

    AND, they're not hiding at all. They must think it's legal.

    --
    If you forget about the future, the future will forget about you.
    1. Re:Be afraid, be VERY afraid by amembleton · · Score: 4, Informative
      Check out these guys
      http://www.datatraceusa.com/products.asp/

      You can get pretty much anything related to cell phones. Expensive, but available.

      AND, they're not hiding at all. They must think it's legal.

      A working link.