The latest word in this still-volatile story... Verizon has been charging hard against online vendors who have obtained Verizon customer records either through bribes or through fraudulent pretexts meant to dupe low-level Verizon employees into giving up the goods. Is this technically illegal at the present time? Well, not exactly... Given all the publicity, state and/or federal action on this issue is surely to come:

Verizon sues to block data theft

Physorg.com
January 24, 2005

Verizon Tuesday boosted its fight to protect customer privacy by filing suit to block Web-site owners from obtaining information under false pretenses.

Verizon claims several companies have fraudulently attempted to obtain customer records by calling Verizon customer-service centers posing as Verizon employees needing access to confidential customer information.

In its lawsuit filed in federal court in New Jersey, Verizon Wireless is seeking injunctions against Data Find Solutions Inc. and one of the company's principals, James Kester, 1st Source Information Specialists and principal Steven Schwartz, and operators of several data broker Web sites.

Verizon is suing to prevent them from obtaining confidential customer information through fraud and deception and to prohibit advertising and selling the information.

Steven Zipperstein, general counsel and vice president of legal and external affairs at Verizon, said, "Verizon Wireless will continue litigating aggressively against these illegal attempts to obtain and traffic in our customers' private information.

"We applaud the recent focus on these issues from public officials, privacy advocates and law enforcement," Zipperstein said. "Together we can shut this down once and for all."

The original article appears here.

--MDT