The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced details of an incident involving a mobile telephone company where one or more employees allegedly sold customer details including expiration dates of their contracts to competitors. Although the ICO did not mention the company by name, the Guardian identified the provider as T-Mobile:
An employee of the phone operator T-Mobile sold the personal records of customers, which included details of when their mobile phone contracts expired. The millions of items of information were then sold on for "substantial sums", the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said. Rival networks and mobile phone retailers were then able to use it to try to lure away T-Mobile customers by "cold calling" them.
In the course of it's investigation, the ICO "obtained several search warrants attended a number of premises, and is now preparing a prosecution file".
Sources:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Comments