Cingular Sues PI for Pretexting
11136
A Georgia private eye involved in the Hewlett-Packard pretexting brouhaha is the target of a suit by Cingular. The company wants him to pay for obtaining customer info under false pretenses.
421775
The feds accidentally give a D.C. attorney a classified document showing that the NSA intercepted his phone calls without a warrant. When they ask for it back, they get a $2 million lawsuit along with it. By Ryan Singel.
525757
Dunn whines The muck continues to thicken around HP's spy scandal. Verizon has filed a lawsuit against 20 unnamed data brokers, accusing them of helping out with the phone fraud used in HP's investigation. Separately, former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn has chastised HP for "inaccuracies" the company published in a recent regulatory filing.â¦
414095
(InfoWorld) - U.S. lawmakers promised to push ahead legislation aimed at cracking down on pretexting despite some objections from telecom carriers and the U.S. Department of Justice. Nearly all the members of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee pledged to push the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act, which would give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) authority to file lawsuits against pretexters and the people who hire them. The bill would also require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to draw up new rules for telecom carriers to protect private phone records, and it would prevent carriers from sharing customer information with third parties without permission. Despite some concerns about the bill, lawmakers said consumers need protection against pretexting, the practice of posing as a telecom customer to obtain phone records and other private information. "Someone with bad intentions and a few bucks can get a hold of almost anybody's cell phone records," said Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican. President George Bush signed a bill creating criminal penalties for pretexting in January. But proponents of the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act say the extra protections in the bill are also needed. The Energy and Commerce Committee approved the same bill during the last session of Congress, but the legislation apparently was held up on the House floor because of concerns from federal law enforcement agencies that the bill could slow efforts to get information on terrorism suspects. Lawmakers from both parties complained that they received little explanation about why the bill died last year. Thomas Navin, chief of the FCC's Wireline Bureau, said the Department of Justice was concerned that the FCC would set up rules that consumers are notified too soon after their phone records were accessed by someone else. The DOJ wanted a delay of seven days before consumers were notified, he said. But Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said consumers should be notified immediately. "I don't think the Department of Justice should be listened to on that issue," he said. "I think [victims] should be listened to on that issue." Markey pointed to news reports this week saying the FBI may have violated the law and its internal rules while collecting telephone, data, and other personal records through the Patriot Act. "There is still a lack of respect for the law of our country," he said. Beyond the law enforcement concerns, representatives of trade groups the United States Telecom Association and CTIA-The Wireless Association said the bill could prevent them from sharing customer information with third parties that market complementary products. CTIA members don't share customers' personal information with unrelated groups, but the carriers do use third-party vendors to market wireless-related products, said Steve Largent, CTIA's president and CEO. But Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, questioned industry concerns about language in the bill that could require carriers to get opt-in permission from customers to share their personal data. "It seems if we want to protect privacy, we should change this from opt out to opt in," he said.
707949
Beleaguered Internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. disclosed Friday it is being sued by AT&T Inc. for alleged patent infringement.
400540
Cingular Wireless Corp. promised to provide uninterrupted service to AT&amp;amp;T Wireless customers when it acquired that company in 2004, but instead it nickel-and-dimed them and degraded their reception in an effort to persuade them to sign new contracts, a federal lawsuit said Thursday.
474601
Claiming national security concerns, and backed by Justice Department special counsel, the phone provider argues in federal court that a lawsuit against it for ponying up millions of phone records for a secret government data-mining program should be dismissed. Ryan Singel reports from the courthouse.
87011
The Federal Trade Commission has asked a Florida federal court to permanently ban telephone "pretexting" -- the practice of obtaining phone records under false pretenses that came to light during last year's HP boardroom scandal.
577287
Top executives of Verizon  Communications, Sprint Nextel Corp., Cingular and T-Mobile USA  have been invited to testify Friday at a U.S. House Energy and  Commerce Committee hearing into the use of deceptive measures  to obtain personal information, known as pretexting, the panel  said on Monday.
55055
straight to your cell phone, according to security experts. The experts, including Symantec Corp. and SimWorks, which specializes
694451
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday upheld a $12.1 million fine against Cingular Wireless, related to a two-year investigation into the cellular telephone company&#39;s business practices.
167650
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce  Committee will ask wireless company executives and the head of  the Federal Communications Commission to testify Friday on the  use of deceptive measures to obtain personal information, known  as pretexting, the panel said on Monday.
508082
A possible Trojan horse hidden in an illegal cell-phone game hits smart phones using the Symbian operating system.
514024
California&#39;s Public Utilities Commission yesterday fined Cingular Wireless a record $12 million for violating state law by failing to tell customers that its network was overburdened, then
172094
Investigators working on behalf of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) masqueraded as telecom employees to obtain phone records of Verizon Communications (VZ) customers, BusinessWeek has learned.
537809
Internet phone service provider Vonage  Holdings Corp.  on Monday said it has been served with a  patent infringement lawsuit filed by two units of Verizon  Communications Inc. .
561837
Prosecutors want to know whether the business development company obtained the phone records of a critic through impersonation.