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Illinois Lawsuit Charges Data Brokerages Illegally Obtained and Sold Consumer Phone Records

April 20, 2006

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Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is suing two out-of-state companies, contending that they obtained and sold the phone records of consumers without their knowledge or consent. Both companies advertise their services using the Web site advsearch.com.

On their Web site, advsearch.com, the defendants advertise that for a fee they can obtain call records for any telephone number. The defendants charge $65 for landline call records, $125 for cellular outgoing calls and $145 for cellular incoming calls. For an additional $30 to $50, the defendants also will provide information regarding call times and duration of calls.

The lawsuit states that in order to access consumers' wireless and landline telephone records, the defendants' agents falsely represented themselves as account holders or as agents or employees of a cell phone company. Additionally, they allegedly tried to gain unauthorized computer access to records.

In January and March of this year, Madigan filed two lawsuits against other companies accusing them of using similar, illegal means to access phone records.

"Without the consent of account holders, these telephone data brokers allegedly invaded consumers' privacy and recklessly sold their private call logs in order to turn a profit," Madigan said.

The investigation into the defendants' practices began after the AG's Consumer Protection Division received a complaint. It revealed that on at least four occasions the defendants provided an Illinois investigation firm with phone records for Illinois consumers.

On one occasion, the Illinois investigation firm allegedly used Advance Research's services to obtain the telephone records for an Illinois resident. The records were obtained at the request of another Illinois resident who was contemplating legal action against the account holder. The account holder did not authorize the release of her cell phone records, Madigan's lawsuit states.

The defendants are charged with multiple violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

The lawsuit asks the court to prohibit the defendants from advertising, offering for sale and selling telephone records or other private records and from further violating Illinois' consumer protection laws. It also seeks a civil penalty of $50,000 and additional penalties of $50,000 for each violation found to have been committed with the intent to defraud.

Finally, Madigan's lawsuit asks the court to order the defendants to pay for all costs for the investigation and prosecution of this case.

Named as defendants were Advanced Research, Inc., a New Jersey corporation, ARI-Advanced Research, LLC, an Oregon limited liability company, Rolf Michael Martin, president of Advanced Research, and Bruce T. Martin, vice president and general manager of Advanced Research and an officer of ARI-Advanced Research. The defendants are not licensed to do business in Illinois.

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