T-Mobile Sues Purported Cell Phone Record Brokers

BELLEVUE, Wash. -(Dow Jones)- T-Mobile USA said it filed a lawsuit against online data brokers it believes are involved in illegally selling cell phone records of some of its customers.

In a press release Monday, the unit of T-Mobile International, which is the mobile telephony arm of German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), said the suit stems from an effort to restrain the "unlawful activities of entities that attempt to fraudulently obtain confidential customer information."

In the lawsuit, which was filed in King County, Wash., T-Mobile is seeking an injunction to stop Locatecell.com, as well as related companies and individuals, from allegedly obtaining and selling private phone records.

T-Mobile also said that as a result of a continuing internal investigation, it has already issued numerous cease and desist letters against other companies it believes illegally obtained and sold phone-calling records of some customers.

Efforts to reach Locatecell.com for comment weren't sucessful.

-Geoffrey Rogow; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 24th January 2006