Your phone records are private because

they contain a lot of sensitive personal in-

formation about you, your family and your

activities. People who get your calling and

billing records without your permission

could use that information to hurt you or

steal from you.

Telling lies or pretending to be the account holder

in order to get another person’s calling records

There are many reasons why people might want

your phone records. These people might include:

• Jealous spouses or stalkers.

• People involved in messy divorces or

lawsuits who are looking for dirt.

• Corporate spies or political campaigns

digging for scandals.

Your phone records could be valuable to people

who want to steal from you. Identity thieves can

use personal information to set up credit or phone

People who are paid to track you down often use

tricks to obtain phone records, sometimes without

legal authority such as a court order or subpoena.

These people include private investigators, bail

bondsmen, debt collectors and others who gain

nancially by obtaining your records for resale to

Protect your phone records

Here are some made-up examples of what could happen if phone records fall into the wrong hands:

Tamika is going through a tough

divorce. Her husband is trying to

bill shows late-night calls to the

co-worker. The husband’s lawyer

charges in court that Tamika is an

unt mother because she is having

an affair with a co-worker.

Jonah has a chronic disease and

does not want his workplace to know

about his illness. A jealous co-worker

hired a private investigator to get

copies of Jonah’s cell phone bills. On

the physician is an AIDS specialist.

The co-worker told people at work

that Jonah has AIDS.

has an unlisted home phone

number to protect his family. One

day a man called the unlisted

number and talked to Peter’s six-

year-old son. The caller warned

the boy, “Tell your father to

family safe.

interested parties. Criminals who

want to intimidate witnesses or

harm police ofcers or their fami-

lies might try to access ofcers’

phone records illegally.

How pretexting happens

Pretexting is done in a variety of

ways. In order to get enough infor-

mation to pretend to be you and

sources such as deeds and court records.

Armed with your personal information, a pretex-

ter could try to access your telephone records by

logging in to your account through the company’s

web site or calling customer service.

Your phone records

Your landline telephone records may include:

• Your billing address and, if different, your

home address.

• Long distance and local toll numbers that

In addition, your wireless phone records may in-

clude:

• The numbers of all phone calls made

or received by you and other family plan

members.

Your online phone accounts may also include:

• Alternate contact information you provided,

such as home or ofce phone numbers.

• Bank or credit information you provided to

pay your bills automatically, such as:

• All telephone and Internet services you

subscribe to.

• Information about the phone that could be

used to track the location of a person who

has the phone.