Ruth To The Rescue Reveals Cell Phone Privacy Issues
Cell Phone Companies Battle Web Sites Selling Phone Numbers
POSTED: Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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Ruth to the Rescue reveals that your cell phone could be telling secrets about you.People use cell phones to call friends, businesses and even doctors' offices without thinking twice about it, assuming that the numbers you're dialing are kept private, Ruth Spencer reported.But Ruth found that your phone records may be open to the public.Web sites such as one called, "Locate Cell," will sell the last 100 hundred phone numbers you've dialed to anyone who knows your phone number, according to Ruth to the Rescue.Ruth Spencer paid the $110 fee and inputted her own phone number on Locate Cell's Web site, and sure enough, she received an e-mail with the results.Ruth found that the report did, in fact, contain the last 100 numbers that she had called, which means anyone could have access to this information, including jealous exes, employers, or even a criminal trying to steal your identity.But how do these Web sites get a hold of your private records? Ruth found that they use two methods, the first of which is called pre-texting.Pre-texting means that someone at the Web site calls your wireless company and pretends to be you, according to Ruth to the Rescue.Another way in which the information can be obtained is through a dishonest employee working for a wireless service provider, who could sell the information to those who desire it."We have a zero-tolerance policy if there was any employee that was sharing information that was inappropriate," said Michelle Gilbert, a representative from Verizon Wireless. "We do not sell customer information to anybody."Verizon is fighting Web sites like Locate Cell and have already filed one lawsuit.Wireless companies consider the sites illegal, but federal law is not so clear. Congress is considering legislation that would specifically make it a crime to get someone's cell phone records by posing as them.Authorities advise that if you're concerned about your cell phone records, call your wireless company and ask to set up an additional password, and use a combination of words, numbers and punctuation marks that would be difficult to crack.If you discover someone has accessed your records, contact the Michigan Attorney General's Office and alert your wireless service provider.
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