T-Mobile UK Employees Sold Customers' Information

angry tapir writes "Workers at T-Mobile UK have been selling customer data to brokers who worked for the competition, according to T-Mobile and the UK's Information Commissioner's Office. Criminal charges are being prepared. 'Many thousands' of customers' account details, millions of records, were sold to several brokers for substantial amounts of money, the ICO said. In an announcement (PDF) from the ICO, the agency does not name the operator involved, but T-Mobile acknowledged that it had alerted ICO about the data breach. The BBC reports that after the other mobile operators said they were not the subject of the investigation, T-Mobile confirmed its involvement."

Comments

T-Mobile Customer

[dch24]

I'm a T-Mobile Customer. I think they did the right thing, coming forward when it was obvious they had a data breach.

I like T-Mobile, especially because they have great customer support. I have a friend who got overbilled by a lot, and decided to settle instead of going to court over it. My experience with the company though has been pretty good. I'm staying with them.

Re:T-Mobile Customer

[breadstic]

Are you a TMobile UK (or US or Germany or wherever else TMobile do business) customer?

I'm a TMobile UK customer (because I wanted the G1), and my personally customer support experiences with them have been pretty terrible. They refused to pause my contract when I came traveling (whereas other UK telecommunications companies will do so), they lowered the price of the contract a week after I bought my G1 and wouldn't let me downgrade to the lower tariff and every time I talk to them, they just seem unwilling to help...

I'll be happy when my contract expires in February and I'll be able to move back to Orange or O2...

But maybe that's just me... Maybe they just hate me... :(

Vote with your feet

[Gandalf_the_Beardy]

I've cancelled direct debits and my contract. Vote with my feet - if they want to be fool enough to sue me for the loss of the contract then they can expect to get countersued for the cost of credit monitoring. Until people start slapping the companies hard by refusing to do business with them this will carry on the UK data protection *laws* are good, but the *penalties* are worthless as a deterrent. It seems they siphoning off millions records. They dont leave the building scribbled down on bits of paper - there is a whole question of access here and how so many people could take this much data for long undetected.

Not exclusive to T Mobile

[onetwofour]

I wish this problem was exclusive to T Mobile, I really do. The sad thing is that I've been on two different networks and somehow firms seem to get hold of my mobile number and start calling me offering me an upgrade. The most accurate firm was one who had my full Orange account details, so why wouldn't you trust a firm who knows where you live? When I reported this to Orange they acted surprised but did absolutely nothing about it, probably because data is flowing far too freely around their organisation. My current provider isn't immune either, around 12 months on my previous contract with O2 I had multiple companies each trying to sell me a new contract. They claim it's just on an autodialer of numbers to call and have no personal information about me. However the fact that someone knows I'm on O2 means enough personal data is leaking.

Re:Not exclusive to T Mobile

[petejk2]

High street retailer is assigned numbers to connect in sequential order in lists hundreds at a time: e.g 07738 400500 to 07738 400900 Joe public walks in and buys a handset on contract with a new number 12/18 months later gets a call from a company to sell him a new deal. Asks why? All that company has done is sent someone into said high street retailer, asked to see the phone numbers list on screen and pick one out That person know that in a 12/18 months time he can plug that number range into his dialer with a high probability that his company will be able to do some business! Leakage of personal data? No. Laughably simple scam? Yes

Taking measures

[UnixUnix]

I provide a slightly different version of my personal data each and every time I need to give them out. Thus if they are leaked/sold/whatever I know who did it, and possibly whom to blame/drop/sue. [Actually, I'm a T-Mobile customer and I haven't had problems. Then again, I don't live in the UK :) ]

Re:Sold to competitors

[dontmakemethink]

Kosher or not the data is 100% reliable. If you buy answers to an exam, the seller gets caught, you can't get your money back, you're free and clear, and the exam questions haven't changed, do you not take advantage of your purchase?