Banks may use the technique only to test their security systems. Pretext callers often seek out helpful clerks, pretend to be customers and then use widely available information, such as Social Security numbers, to coax them into sharing confidential records. The practice has been used for years to collect all sorts of information, including utility and telephone records. Only rarely, though, have state prosecutors used consumer-protection statutes to charge brokers with deception. Recent interviews with customers of information brokers, and a Federal Trade Commission sting that led to charges against the Baltimore broker and two other firms last week, show that the market for private financial details is thriving.
Brokers still advertise asset searches on the Web.
Privacy specialists and FTC officials charged with enforcing the financial privacy law say brokers who traffic in confidential data add to a growing sense of unease among people who want their personal records to remain private. They also worry that without better security, financial reports may make identity fraud easier. There's an entire industry out there of information finders or brokers operating in the gray areas of the law, or outside the law. In some cases, the customers professed ignorance of how brokers obtain confidential data. Others said they felt justified because they were pursuing deadbeats.