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House Tries Once More to Pass Pretexting Bill

Measure Would Protect Consumers' Telephone Records

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com Congressional Correspondent

March 9, 2007

Calling Records • FTC Shuts Down Pretexting Operation • Phone Pretexters Get Off Cheap • Verizon Wireless Changes Customer Data Policy • FCC Strengthens Rules For Phone Privacy • House Tries Once More to Pass Pretexting Bill • Pretexting Bill: Pretense or Reality? • Hewlett-Packard Pays $14.5 Million to Settle Pretexting Suit • HP Scandal Ignites New Pretexting Battle In Congress • AT&T Sues Calling Record Brokers • Sprint Nextel Settles Case with Florida Data Broker • Feds Sue Calling Record Vendors • Illinois Lawsuit Charges Data Brokerages • Florida Judgment to End Data Broker's Business • Florida Investigates Fake Caller IDs • California Sues Data Trace USA for $10 Million • Missouri Sues Datatraceusa.com • Florida Sues Data Broker Over Sale of Phone Records • Texas Sues Companies Selling Telephone Calling Records • Websites Hawking Phone Records Shut Down • FTC Vows to Stop Illicit Sale of Cell Phone Calling Records • FTC Pledges "Vigorous" Pursuit of Cell Phone Record Sales • AT&T Accused of Eavesdropping, Calling Record Sales • Sprint Sues Cell Phone Record Brokers • Missouri Shuts Down Locatecell.com • Texas Probes Cell Phone Calling Record Sales, Missouri Files Suit • Illinois Sues Company Selling Cell Phone Calling Records • Outcry Over Sale of Cell Phone Calling Records

Your telephone records can be viewed by any savvy scammer. Who you call, how long you're on the phone and where you live can all be obtained with your phone number and Social Security number.

All scammers, crammers and stalkers need is your home or cell telephone number and your Social Security number to "pretext," that is, get a host of personal and potentially embarrassing data.

But members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are considering a bill that would end the sharing of private phone records without consumer consent.

One witness at today's hearing, David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital, was pretexted by Allied Capital, a company which he had exposed for potentially questionable activities.

"In its zeal to silence its critics, Allied used extreme measures," Einhorn said. "I subsequently learned that a woman, unknown to me, had called my long distance provider (AT&T), identified herself as my wife, provided my wife's Social Security number and opened an online account to access our home telephone records.

Some Republicans and cell phone providers are unhappy with a subsection of the bill that would limit cell phone companies' access to their own customers' records.

Steve Largent, president and chief executive officer of the Wireless Association, a group that lobbies on behalf of cell phone providers, said companies can better target savings toward consumers with the data they currently have at hand.

But Democrats in attendance rebutted by saying that if consumers want those targeted savings, they can give their consent to their providers.

If history is any guide, thiebill, the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act, will fly through the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The committee unanimously passed an identical bill in the 109th Congress. But amid a White House phone records scandal in which government officers pretexted American citizens, the bill "mysteriously disappeared from the House floor schedule," Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the committee (D-Mich.) said.

Even a few Republicans shared frustrations about the bill's past fate.

"We've seen this bill before and passed it before it disappeared so let's just get this thing passed through this committee, through the House and the Senate and get it onto the President's desk," Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas) said.

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