Recall this post from late last week, which discussed Verizon Wireless bringing legal action against Source Resources, an information broker and security firm that had reportedly tricked Verizon Wireless employees into turning over personal data on customers.

A Superior Court judge in New Jersey has granted Verizon's request for a court order enjoining Source Resources from continuing their practice of obtaining personal information on Verizon customers. According to a recent Eweek.com article:

...Verizon claimed that Source Resources used personal information obtained from other sources in order to pose as individual customers and trick its service representatives into divulging additional data, including their phone numbers and calling records....

As part of its claim, Verizon submitted online marketing materials reportedly offered by Source Resources that detailed the company's ability to garner the names, addresses and social security numbers of individual cellular subscribers for $85 apiece. For $150, the data broker offered additional information, including wireless calling records and billing information.

"Accessing a person's personal telephone records without a valid court order or the customer's permission is illegal," Steven Zipperstein, general counsel at Verizon Wireless, said in a statement. "We will protect our customers against these kinds of assaults on their privacy and use every weapon in our legal arsenal to shut down identity-theft operations"...

Sources familiar with the case said that a private investigator named in the suit, Richard Childs, first informed the carrier of Source Resources' data acquisition practices when one of his own clients had their information obtained by the firm. Childs did not return calls seeking comment on the case, but Verizon stated in its filing that private investigators are also among the most frequent buyers of the services involved in the Source Resources suit...

...Superior Court Judge Harriet Derman granted a court order on Tuesday barring data provider Source Resources Inc. from acquiring, possessing or selling confidential information about Verizon's 45 million wireless customers. According to Verizon's claim, which was filed in early July, Source Resources was able to dupe the carrier's customer service representatives into supplying much of the data...

Accessing data in this manner is to the investigative industry as steroids are to professional sports. It is a shortcut that narrowly skirts legality while providing performance enhancement. And just like steroids, the results can ultimately be destructive for the individuals involved as well as the entities they represent. It will be extremely interesting to see if this case is be beginning of a trend, with other telecoms taking similar steps.

The full E Week article appears here. Many thanks the excellent Law Librarian Blog for the link.

-- MDT

Labels: identity theft