US agencies investigate mobile phone data leak

US federal agencies are looking into whether telephone companies are sufficiently protecting consumers' records amid concerns that Internet sites were selling cellphone call information, a Reuters report said.

 

The Reuters report quoted Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, as saying that the chairman of the FCC told him the agency was investigating whether phone companies were adequately protecting consumer records.

 

He said in a statement 'the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission were coordinating efforts to combat this rising fraud,' the report said.

 

In November, Markey asked the FTC and the FCC to investigate what he said was a violation of private consumer information and to take steps to protect consumers, the report said.

 

Earlier, the CTIA, an industry group representing US mobile telephone services, called for federal and state authorities to investigate Web sites that it says fraudulently obtain and sell consumers' cellphone call information, the report said.