Cracking Down on Phone Record Brokers

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Jan 23, 2006 12:22PM

Remember that post we did on how anyone can request your cell phone records and find out all kinds of personal information about you? For about $100 - $200 all you had to do was contact 1st Source Information Specialists Inc at one of their websites (locatecell.com, celltolls.com, datafind.org, peoplesearchamerica.com) and you could find out all the calls placed from a number or find out a name, ssn, and address associated with a number. The service can also help you stalk a person by tracking down the location of calls within 500 - 1,000 feet of where they were placed. Scary stuff.

Well, now IL has become the first state to sue 1st Source and its directors. They're accused of using fraud to persuade telephone companies to release phone callilng lists, said a spokeswoman for Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Also, on Wednesday Sen. Ira Silverstein of Chicago proposed a bill that would make it illegal to pretend like your a phone customer to get this kind of personal information. And last Friday Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park filed a bill to make it illegal for brokers to sell this kind of info and also to require phone companies to secure their records.