Let's be honest, who here is actually surprised that underpaid and overworked data workers would sell on our details for a few extra quid? Given the number of uninvited calls to our unlisted phone numbers, we know for a fact that
somebody has been dishing our personal contacts to those Nigerian princes and caring loan consolidators, so it's no shock to learn that T-Mobile employees have been fingered for committing the deed and are now facing prosecution. We're told that inappropriately leaked information made its way into the hands of brokers, who then "cold-called the customers as their contracts were due to expire" without T-Mob's knowledge. Disappointed by the failure of current fines to discourage such illegal information trade, British Justice Minister Michael Wills has even called for "custodial sentences" to be levied against the poor slobs responsible. So, if you're scoring at home, that's now two black eyes for T-Mobile when it comes to
keeping our data safe. For shame.
posted November 17th 2009 6:09PM
It always happen here. They store all the public data and at one point they missed or loss it. Then every body start to shout. Then cycle continues.
"..T-Mobile employees have been fingered for committing the deed..."
Hmmm
mmm indeed... :D
somebody Named names!!!
not me!
^ LOL! :D
Wow, and our friends across the pond stick their noses up at T-Mobile US. Shame on you, T-Mobile UK.
cheeky cheeky
Watch it. They just got _caught_ in the UK.
How do you know it's not happening in the US?
Companies do this kind of thing all the time.
Plus its not ATT, its T-Mobile, so their not exactly printing money--maybe they have to resort to 'alternative income streams.'
It was employees doing this for their own gain not the network itself.
No kidding Mike!! It happens here ALL THE TIME. It's been proven that companies DO NOT SECURE CUSTOMER DATA, at least not with GOOD passwords and secure technology. It's apparently very easy to break through. So not only can employees steal data but outsiders get in too! We only hear about those who got caught stealing customer data, but what about those who didn't?
Then there was that other case posted today about TRUSTED companies helping to scam customers with "memberships". Credit card numbers were sold. Yep, our data is NOT safe.
Godwin's Law
Wow, no class.
I do enjoy the graphic though hehe.
"monica" you are a dude. Get off these male-orientated sites with your blonde pic and your links to dating sites.
Everyone can see through your crap. Obviously you like and know allot about videogames, but know nothing about cars and just go to those sites to chime in. What chick on earth talks about wireless video game adapters? none, thats who.
Dude, how much do you get paid when people click through to that dating site?
Yeah, Monica is not the only account posing as a real person... I ran into a few more recently. It's such a damn shame people do this crap.
Good on you for catching this fake.
All this spam... man, just get a useful job, really.
Its pay per signup
So then I take it David McSween aka Monica Dickey of
985 Shadybrook dr
Concord, California 94521United States
(925) 998-7113
is also bogus.
@larry raines:
In all fairness, though I know what you're referring to, my wife is an avid gamer and tends to talk about gaming equipment a lot, so wireless adapters would not be out of the realm of her knowledge/speech. Likewise, female professional gamers.
Well its not just t-mobile, I have never been with t-mobile. I was on Vodafone when I got a cold call asking me to renew, smelt a little fishy so I hung up and called Vodafone. Their Fraud dept asked me to go along with 'Landmark Communications' to get their details so I called them back and went through the whole sign up process so Vodafone could get the companies address. Could even be organised gangs that infiltrate call centres just to steal and sell customer details....
Interesting to see if o2 and Vodafone uk are investigated for data loss.
Well you should make that 3 knock downs because even before the Sidekick and this recent trap T-Mobile was doing the data shuffle here in its homeland of Germany T-Mobile and its mother company Deutsche Telekom had about 30 million customers bank accounts and credit card info float out. So really this whole group has some serious data protection issues
Now if only we can find away to trace email spammers.
Off with their heads.
@T-mobile
WHERES YOUR MAGENTA BASED LAW SUIT NOW?!?!
Wondering about T-Mobile Employees now?
even if moving away from the T-mobile carrier would guarantee that this wouldn't happen is a bit naive - however I will still be leaving TMUK at the end of the month as they are rubbish Customer service.....
and ive been with them since they were called one2one!
One2One FTW! Remember saving tokens from bottles to get a Coca-Cola Ericsson A1018, took ages but was well worth it xD
T-Mobile US sucks as well, I do feel your pain!
@Aaronage - I can't believe it, but I did and had the same thing! Forgot about it completely
@mrspiteri
WIN!
"...that's now two black eyes for T-Mobile when it comes to keeping our data safe."
Er, no, that's one for T-Mobile and one for Microsoft. (And I guess an additional slap-mark for T-Mo for association with the Sidekick thing.)
Why bring Nigeria into it?
You probably dont care and I wont blame you if you dont, but it does hurt when everything fraudulent is given a Nigerian name regardless of whether it had anything to do with Nigeria in the first place.
I am sure some commenters will scold me and tell me to go and sort out the scammers in Nigeria...but the truth is that there are a lot of us hardworking Nigerians out there just like you and it's very painful to hear us being called fraudsters all the time.
Thanks
Sorry Feyi, reputations are not personal, but that's a stereotype that's going to hang around for decades and will only change if some other country gets an even worse reputation than Nigeria for trying to rip vunerable and gullible people off.
But hey, at least the scams are resourceful and always polite, and sometimes very funny! ;)
Could be worse, you could have the reputation of the French! (ok, calm down frenchies...I love France too!).
Yup, every country gets associated with something:
Scammers -- Nigeria
Idiocy -- America
Snobbery -- Britan
Bad Oders -- French
Drunkenness/Violence -- Irish
Loudness -- Italy
No-one really means much when they make these references.. but when we get 5 emails a say from prince whats-his-face who's got $5 Billion dollars he needs to move via another country, and that we were picked because we look so trustworthy (though my email address does look very trustworthy..) we're going to think of scammers when we think of Nigera and vice versa :P
Best not to take it all too seriously..
@Feyi
Most people wouldn't understand your point. As a fellow Nigerian, I hate seeing our country brought up whenever fraud is mentioned. Many Nigerians are trustworthy and hardworking people.
And to everyone else, consider this:
There are scammers in EVERY country.
Feyi, I know how you feel, as a fellow Nigeria it is hard to convince everyone how hard working and trustworthy majority of Nigerian are. I always get frustrated when people at my work place talks about Nigerians like we invented "Fraud". I and my wife had in the past written to the BBC numerous times just to make them understand that stereotyping is not just right.
I just hope that Nigerian Government do something to resolve this.
Your comment made no sense AND you're advertising your website...
WHAT KIND OF PATHETIC LOSER ARE YOU?
When was a customer service rep for AT&T wireless years ago, I knew of an employee or two who would write down credit card numbers, ss numbers and other information of customers in a notebook after a transaction. What he did with the information is unknown, but customer service reps are usually not paid very well and trusted with information which could benefit them financially. Best thing you can do is protect yourself with programs available (such as CC insurance or SS lock) so your information cannot be used for others benefit.
this happens to me and im on O2. T-mobile are not the only ones doing it.
"UK T-Mobile customer data sold to cold callers, responsible staff to be prosecuted"
It should read
"UK T-Mobile customer data sold to cold callers, staff responsible to be prosecuted"
Both titles have slightly different meanings.
T-Mobile UK are merging with Orange and creating a new network how funny this is only leaked when T-Mobile are about to vanish from the UK.
You never know, they might just be prosecuting the responsible staff as a preemptive move. XD
Based on my experience TMUK have very few responsible staff, so giving them the chop might be an improvement.
Yes.. I know.. I changed from countries to natioalities half way through the list.. of course you wouldn't see it if there was AN EDIT BUTTON. < / rant >
Looks like the responsible staff...
*puts on glasses*
didn't act very responsibly.
YEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
(lets try that again, engadget comment system)
Hey, the T-Mobile UK logo has two extra dots on the left side. Geeeeez.
YEEAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
I have a T-Mobile UK SIM card. Does this mean my British SIM card that isn't in use is getting spammed by telemarketers. Brilliant.
"You have 99 new messages."
May I remind you that neither time was it T-mobiles fault.
T-mobile is responsible for its staff's conduct, and for what they do with customer data. This time they are responsible.
To a certain extent it is, for not securing the data.
The British Justice Minister is not Michael Wills. It is actually Jack Straw