I used this service to research one small phone number. Two weeks later a company I had never heard of debited my account for $20.00. Upon calling that company and asking what the heck was going on I was informed that by using the "Intelius" service I was automatically signed up for their services and my banking information was provided to them via Intelius. CAN WE SAY FRAUD???????????????????? Stay away from Intelius

Also you can have Zaba notify you anytime someone search for you, even if your info has been deleted. Which I have.

Ironically, I work for people I knew 20 years ago, that I found thru ZabaSearch.

Sadly, my opt-out experience comes from being a dead-beat.

not paying to see how accurate Intelius is although not happy to see correct city/state/carrier.

be nice to find a reasonably priced hacker type to remove such things from public records/searches etc.

@UnStatusTheQuo: would be nice :)

@Nighthawke: have you been able to get those 3 to cease &/or be punished?

@redstorm986: "So how do you deal with a rogue telcom that sells your contact information."

Make your information worthless?

Each company I do business with I make a subtle change to my information to see if it does make it out into the wild. So far, 3 companies have done so and caught hell for doing it. They ask me how I found them out, I smile and say "If I'm going to tell you my secret, I've got this fantastic bridge to offer you. It's in Brooklyn though."

you can search for people by ssn...weird

@mamacat49: Same here. Not even close, in my case. (phew)

My listings on there are several years out of date. Interesting, because I bought a house in that time, which is a matter of public record, so you'd think they'd have my current address. (Every skeezy subprime mortgage lender sure knows my address, and sends me all kinds of skeezy mortgage offers. Although they've dropped off considerably in the past year, come to think of it. Silver lining to the subprime crisis?)

Geez, Intelius really is super creepy now.

this is insane. I searched my name and it knew both my brothers' names and both my parents' names... first middle and last!

Most of the info in the $49 package though is public information and I can get it for free.

That is how it SHOULD work.

Still, I'm glad I put my cell number on the do-not-call list!

Maybe another Web Loyalty "Shopper Discount" in action?

They claimed they 'found' my cell number but it was listed under another city not even close to me. I'm safe for now I guess.

Yesterday was Data Privacy Day 2008. There was not a single mention of it anywhere in Congress, and Congress has done zilch to enact meaningful privacy protections. As long as Congress continues to sit on its hands, data miners like these will continue to operate.

One skill I luckily learned early in life is to never give your phone number to any company. If they want to get a hold of me, they can mail me. When they force a number from me, its fake. My bank and CC company don't even know my number. My work knows it but that's about it! I've never had any issues because of that, other then perhaps forgetting which fake number I gave.

All this stuff is already on the internet. This company has only collected it into one database. Anybody with a phone and some google skills can get all this info anyways. Don't willingly let your info get on the internet and you should be fairly protected. You can find a boat load of emails and addresses, names, numbers, etc just searching resumes online.

@LionelEHutz:

that's what i'm thinking too. although on their website they request something else:

"To opt out your publicly available information from being obtained by someone using our People Search
service, fax or mail your name and address as it appears on our website or send us a copy of the page from our website that includes your information."

no other instruction than that, and i'd imagine that fax empties into a nice round black bin.

It listed my name and indicated it had my number 11 times. My carrier is Ameritech I wonder if they rolled over for the FBI/NSA/CIA so I guess they'll do it for Intelius for $$$. As mentioned above I'm not about to pay them to see my own number but I will make the leap and guess that they culled it from somewhere. Caveat emptor

The quality of their service is questionable but it is still enough to keep debt collectors calling me about delinquent debts incurred by someone with a similar name.

Nice scam by them.

next thing we know, it will be perfectly acceptable and for others to stare at you naked, Europe is already started the fad

jesus christ!! they list my mother's maiden name, and will sell someone my date of birth, my college apt and mom's address and phone number!! wtf, how is this shit legal???

Typical directory. I wouldn't trust this if I were you.

I work for a telephone company and fielded a call from an irate customer who thought that we sold the data. I actually called them, and they said that most of the data they get doesn't come from the service providers themselves, but often from public records, and that you can get your information out of their data base, but you have to send them a letter I believe. That conversation was a long time ago, so I may be amiss on some of the details.

I searched for myself in two different cities (different physical and mailing addresses) and neither came up. I wonder if it matters who your carrier is or how you use your phone (for example, maybe you only have a cell phone, no land line.)

Not that I'm complaining. Although caller ID is a great thing and I don't answer calls from strangers.

I heard about a website recently that promised to spam any site you wanted... I can't think of the name of it now, which means I'll do a little digging and let you guys know... For your own use, of course...

My cell phone was listed with correct city - but then again I've had it for six years and it's my only phone... I'm not about to pay $15 to see my own name and cell phone #..

@EchoMatrix - personal information has yet to be considered personal property. IANAL, but in most cases it's been considered legitimate business if they had your information and they hadn't been asked to stop (Do Not Call list, a written or e-mailed request to stop, etc.)

I wonder how serious Verizon is about shutting these guys down (or at least not giving out cell phone numbers)... If they're for real, it might be nice to have a corporate behemoth on our side.

Burn their servers and march the employees into the sea.

I know it certainly used to be, when did this change?

So when I forget the number to my new phone I can call them up?