Sprint Nextel sues private investigator
The firm stole, then sold, confidential cell phone information, the telecommunications company says.
By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published March 21, 2006
TAMPA - Sprint Nextel has filed a federal lawsuit against a private investigation firm in St. Petersburg, claiming it stole confidential cell phone subscriber information by posing as customers and employees.
The civil suit, filed Friday in Tampa, alleges that San Marco and Associates Private Investigation Inc. illegally obtained customer cell phone numbers and other information, then sold it to third parties. The cell phone provider wants a judge to order the firm to stop.
Jennifer Walsh, a spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel, said it was unclear how long the St. Petersburg firm had been allegedly stealing customer information.
"That's part of the purpose of the suit," Walsh said. "What's behind the suit is the extreme concern we have about privacy and maintaining our customer privacy."
San Marco and Associates advertised its services to other business through faxes and fliers handed out at trade shows and distributed on the Internet, according to the federal complaint. The firm charged $75 for providing the cell phone records, the court documents said.
Virginia-based Sprint Nextel provides training to customer service representatives to prevent information thefts like the ones San Marco is accused of. Sprint Nextel employees generally follow a verification process before giving information to a caller.
But the lawsuit says that on several occasions, the private investigation firm managed to get around the verification process. San Marco and Associates sometimes posed as employees of Sprint Nextel or customers to get information, the complaint said. Walsh would not elaborate on how the firm was able to get around Sprint Nextel's verification process.
A representative from the St. Petersburg firm could not be reached Monday for comment.
San Marco and Associates "continue to advertise and offer their illicit services and, unless immediately restrained and enjoined from doing so by this court, they will continue to engage in wrongful conduct to the extreme detriment of Sprint Nextel and its customers," the federal complaint said.
The complaint did not cite a dollar figure earned by San Marco and Associates from allegedly selling customer information, or say who it sold the information to.
Sprint Nextel filed a similar complaint against First Source Information Specialists Inc. in January and won a permanent injunction from a judge, according to a statement on the cell phone provider's Web site. First Source operates www.locatecell.com and datafind.org.
Sprint Nextel also has filed a complaint against All Star Investigations Inc., a company that operates several private investigation sites on the Internet.
To better protect personal information, Walsh said Sprint Nextel recommends that customers often change their passwords used to protect account information online or features on Sprint phones, like voice mail.
--Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com