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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A former AT&T retail sales worker is accused of obtaining customers' cellphone records and selling them to a private investigator — the second such case in Alabama in recent days, federal prosecutors said.
Eric Conley, 33, is charged with computer intrusion, the FBI and U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said in a statement Thursday. They say Conley sold hundreds of AT&T's customer records to the private investigator.
Earlier this month, authorities said former Verizon Wireless technician Daniel Eugene Traeger of Hoover, Alabama, used Verizon's computers to obtain customers' private call records — plus data showing where customers' phones were — and sold them to the private investigator.
Prosecutors say the cases are related, and that both former workers sold customer information to the same unnamed private investigator.
Traeger pleaded guilty to a felony count of unauthorized access to a protected computer as part of a plea deal, court records show. It wasn't known whether Conley has an attorney who could be reached for comment.
"We cannot allow people with access to sensitive personal information abuse that access for personal financial gain," Vance said in a statement. "Anyone with a cellphone could be put at risk of harm if their private call information or tracking data is illegally accessed and used."
Conley was working for AT&T in Gardendale when the private investigator offered to pay him for certain customer records, prosecutors said. He then sold hundreds of customer records for thousands of dollars in cash and check payments, authorities said.
In Traeger's case, he logged into one Verizon computer system to gain access to customers' call records, authorities said. He used another company system known as Real Time Tool to "ping" cellphones on Verizon's network to get locations of the devices, according to the plea agreement.
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