Anyone who buys or sells telephone subscriber information of Washington State residents can be criminally prosecuted.
The Final Bill Report provides a summary.
Summary: Creating the Crime of Unauthorized Sale or Procurement of Telephone Records.
It is a class C felony to intentionally sell, knowingly purchase, or fraudulently obtain a person’s telephone records without the person’s permission.
It is a gross misdemeanor to
knowingly receive a person’s telephone records without the person’s permission.
The legislation is entitled Prohibiting the unauthorized sale of telephone numbers.
Washington State First to Pass Phone Records Bill
It looks as though Washington State is first to the finish line on legislation to protect telephone records. The House and Senate have passed SB 6776, but the bill still awaits the Governor’s signature. As in other states, the bill…
Luckily for a client of mine this law was not in existance when I obtained such phone records to help make a criminal case for harrassment. My client came to me when the police said they could do nothing and suggested she hire a P.I.
The phone records allowed us to target a specific subject and make the case which the police then took and arrested the subject who is currently waiting trial and is out on a $100,000 bond.
Our state legislators as well as those in other states and in D.C. are destroying a very valuable investigative tool for licensed professionals which will only act to aid those engaged in illegal activity.
[…] Today, the James Rapp’s are in the spotlight because of their self-promotion on the Internet leading to proposed federal legislation, congressional hearings, state laws specifically restricting procurement of telephone subcriber records, and litigation by state Attorneys General. I’ve written about 20 postings on this topic du jour, including the recent legislation passed in Washington and Florida. […]
Hey Mike and everyone, I also had a case a while back where obtaining cell phone info was helpful. My client owned a construction company and was loosing materials. One of the supervisors was making calls on the company provided cell phone. He had made a call to one of the other employees and telling him where to deliver materials. It just so happened the phone call that was made just prior to and just after, was actually made to the “customer”. Once we were able to obtain the customer’s name and address from the cell phone number, it was very easy to locate and recover the stolen scaffolding. The supervisor was selling material and tools that belonged to the company and even having the company’s employees delivering the items. The supervisor would then pocket the money, sharing some of the money with the delivery employee. Being able to obtain the customers name and address made things very easy. I guess on future cases this info would have to be obtained through interviews or by asking (ya right) Law Enforcement to become actively invovled. It seems most of the wording in the new laws are geared toward cell phone records. I am not sure where customer name and address falls, would CNA also be considered cell phone records. I noticed a lot of the sources for this type of info, are no longer in service. And the ones that are will still take your money, but provide no results.
Interesting topic Tamara, thanks for all the digging.
George Copeland