Intelius Cell Phone Lookup Results in Cell Phone Carrier, County, and ST of owner only! Ripoff Bellevue Washington
I was receiving anoying text messages from somebody so I went to anywho.com to do a "reverse look-up" on the cell phone number. Anywho, affiliated with AT&T didn't have any information on the cell number so they provided a link to Intelius. The link indicates they can provide additional information. So I gave them my credit card number which they charge 21.48. This included the charge for the information and an additional charge to sent the information immediately to my email account.
What information did they provide? Here is the information they provided:
1. the name of the cell phone provider
2. the county and state of the cell phone provider's business address--not the county and state of the person's number but the county and state of the cell phone company's business address!
I am outraged!
I will be calling American Express to have them NOT pay the charge to Intelius--because I am not going to pay it.
Intelius misleads you into believing they are going to be providing information that is actually helpful and doesn't deliver. I would be okay with that if they acknowledged the information is worthless and refund your money (or better yet: don't take it to begin with if they realize they have no real information for your request).
Perhaps we all need to contact AT&T (from anywho.com) and ask them why they provide a link to Intelius when Intelius is ripping everybody off.
Jboy
Tampa, Florida
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Steven
Youngstown,Ohio,
U.S.A.
Well what you are wanting is illegal
#3Consumer Suggestion
Fri, August 31, 2007
Due to privacy acts, it is illegal to get information like what you are requesting from Intellius. If you wan't the name and address of the person texting you, if it is harrassing or life threatening, you need to go to the police, who will then subpoena the name from that person's cell phone provider....and then the police take it into their own hands...and even at that point you may not even get the Name and address or even see the person that sent you these text messages....Privacy is a big thing now with a lot of companies...
Also, if you were to ever obtain information from a company with the person's name and address, this person got the information illegaly, either by having an employee of the company gain information and paid them for it......or sometime's fradulent people will call cell phone companies and pretend to be workers to try and gain info........
So what I would suggest that you do is maybe just change your # if it bugs you??
Jboy
Tampa,Florida,
U.S.A.
AT&T (the owners of anywho.com) response about intelius:
#3Author of original report
Fri, August 31, 2007
Since anywho.com provides a direct link to intelius, I decided to ask AT&T (the company that owns anywho.com) what their relationship with Intelius is. Here is my complete email to them:
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On your anywho.com website, you provide a link
to Intelius. After logging a compaint against Intelius, I have been contacted to switch from AT&T due to your support of Intelius. Please
see ripoffreport.com for allegations against that company. What is the nature of the relationship between AT&T and Intelius? What fees does Intelius provide AT&T for AT&T providing the Intelius link on anywho.com?
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And here is AT&T's reply:
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Thank you for contacting AT&T Customer Service.
I received your e-mail inquiring about the relationship between AT&T and Intelius and the fees Intelius pays AT&T for providing links to
Intelius on anywho.com website.
The relationship between AT&T and Intelius is a professional one and we cannot provide you the details about this relationship. We thank you for the information you have provided. It will be forwarded to the appropriate department.
If you need further assistance please contact us at: consumer.att.com/contact/
You can also Ask Allie, our online virtual representative. Allie has answers for many questions about billing, account management and even plans and services. Just go to: att.com/allie
For your protection, AT&T is maintaining an original of this e-mail transmission in a secure file.
Sincerely,
Arnold
AT&T Online Customer Service
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So the relationship is a professional one but AT&T cannot provide details about the relationship. Fantastic. I guess if AT&T has relationships with any company, no matter how fraudulent, AT&T just throws in the phrase, "professional one, " and that is all they have to say.
Would AT&T link to a website any thief's design? Obviously, the thief would compensate AT&T financially for each customer to their fraudulent site. And then when the thiefs started ripping people off, and people complained, AT&T would just say, "the relationship is a professional one." It is an amazing way for huge corporations to wring even more money out of their own customers via rogue websites and then hide behind their arrogant professional-relationship-babble to make them sound like they are unaware of any wrong-doing.