Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records for Sale

The center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission yesterday against one data broker, Intelligent e-Commerce Inc. of Encinitas, Calif., saying it misrepresented its right to obtain the information. The firm, which operates the Web site http://www.bestpeoplesearch.com , advertises a variety of personal data for sale, including cell phone records.

The company, which says on its Web site that it uses a licensed private investigator to get the information, said through its lawyer that it seeks to comply with all local, state and federal laws. Attorney Larry Slade said he does not know how the company acquires the phone records.

Phone companies view all these tactics as illegal, even if they are used to help track down criminal activity. Instead, carriers say, they require court orders before releasing customer records.

If someone uses pretexting to gain access to records, "these people are acting criminally, posing as someone they are not," Nelson said. He added that Verizon is preparing legal action against one data provider.

The FTC views pretexting as a deceptive practice even without a specific ban on its use for telephone records, Winston said.

But he said the agency has never taken such a case to court and does not know how widespread the problem is. He said the FTC must focus its resources on the practices of data thieves that can cause the most damage to large numbers of consumers, such as financial fraud.

Many of the vendors of call records are unregulated data brokers, such as Data Find Solutions Inc. of Knoxville, Tenn., which operates Locatecell.com. Company officials did not return calls seeking comment.

At the Florida office of private investigator Anderson, a man who answered the phone and identified himself only as Mike said, "I don't really think we're going to reveal our sources" of phone records. "There's a lot of ways of doing it."

At Reliatrace Locate Services of Wisconsin, a man who declined to give his name said only that his firm buys the data from another firm.

There is active debate within the private investigator community about the propriety of getting phone records. In at least one online discussion group for the industry, some members defended the practice as legitimate while others said it was illegal, according to transcripts provided to The Washington Post.

"I do not know of any legal way to obtain a person's telephonic history," Robert Townsend, head of the National Association of Legal Investigators, said in an interview. Townsend added that he thinks only a small minority of licensed investigators engage in the practice of acquiring and selling the data.