Touch Tone filed court papers last month that said the FTC doesn't have authority to pursue the case because, among other reasons, the agency is charged with protecting consumers and a bank isn't a consumer. We say, take this issue seriously. Information brokers often use public databases such as court rulings or motor vehicle records to get started on a search about someone. They then use that routine data to concoct ruses to get more sensitive information from other sources. Va. A pretext caller with a search target's name, date of birth and Social Security number can easily call a hospital and pretend he's filling out forms for a new insurance policy.
Insurers often ask applicants for prior medical history.
Va. What's needed are multilevel access controls. Butera wouldn't say whether the Rapps are still in business and advised his clients not to do interviews. It is done very specifically and in all the cases, at least by the scrupulous brokers, for what we consider to be justifiable legal purposes. The practice isn't wrong, in part because many brokers use it for good causes, such as to track down withheld child-support money or divorce settlements, he said. Wind, an information broker in New York, co-founded the coalition last year to combat a bill pending in Congress that would outlaw obtaining someone's financial information under false pretenses.