District Court Puts End to Records Sale

January 29, 2008: A US Federal judge has filed an injunction against a company called AccuSearch after it advertised a service online accepting payment for the phone records of any American citizen – without the record owner’s consent.

The landmark win for privacy advocates across the United States saw Judge William F Downes in the District Court of Wyoming bar the illegal operations, ordering the defendants to give up the almost US$200,000 profited from the phone records already sold.

The suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2006 claimed the the service to be illegal as it involved obtaining and selling private records without consent from the owner.

According to the FTC the actions of AccuSearch and its owner, Jay Pater violated federal law by selling the phone records to third parties without the authorisation of the consumer affected. Accusearch detailed this ability on their Website, offering phone records, including incoming and outgoing calls, of any individual for a fee.

Not surprisingly, this type of information is not available to the general public. In order to source these records, the FTC alleged AccuSearch would need to use, ‘false pretences, fraudulent statements, fraudulent or stolen documents or other misrepresentations.’

In his ruling, Judge Downes found public phone records were obtained through ‘illegal means’ and said consumers faced substantial injury including health and safety risks generated from potential stalkers and abusers.

Meanwhile Downes also found that the evidence before the court indicated confidential phone records were sold through the service, despite the record owners’ going to great lengths to ensure their privacy.

Accusearch also offers background checks, public records services and corporate legal services. According to the company Website, AccuSearch is 'passionate' about their work, labelling their background searches as a hunt that's "in our blood."

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