July 9, 2005
Cell Phone Records for Sale
Fueled by the ease of online commerce, snoops are on the trail of records of phone calls, especially from cell phones, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Legal experts say many of the methods for acquiring such personal information are illegal, but they receive scant attention from authorities.
Think your mate is cheating? For $110, Locatecell.com (one among many other websites) will provide you with the outgoing calls from his or her cell phone for up to 100 calls. All you need to supply is the name, address and the number for the phone you want to trace. Order online, and get results within hours.
Such records could be used by criminals, such as stalkers or abusive spouses trying to find victims.
The only repository of telephone call records is the phone companies. Carriers say they are aware that people seek to get customers' call records and sell them, but the companies say they take steps to prevent it.
But some experts aren't so sure. "Information security by carriers to protect customer records is practically nonexistent and is routinely defeated," said Robert Douglas, a consultant who has tracked the issue for several years.
Data brokers and private investigators who offer such records for sale probably get them using one of three techniques.
They might have someone on the inside at the carrier who sells the data. Another method is "pretexting," in which the data broker or investigator pretends to be the customer and persuades the carrier's employees to release the information.
Finally, they can try to get access to consumer accounts online. Telephone companies are encouraging their customers to manage their accounts over the Internet. Typically, the online capability is set up in advance, waiting to be activated by the customer. But many customers never do.
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