Eircom Passing contact Details onto "Spanish Sweepstakes" Company

BobTheBeat

Bit concerned with this.. my girlfriend is living with a friend of hers in an apartment complex,and got a letter in the door from "The spanish sweepstakes" just last week. Luckily she knew it was a scam and got rid of it straight away. Im beginning to think she shouldnt have been so hasty...

She has only been living there for the past 6 months and the only items that are registered to her there are the bills for utility payment.

Now heres the most troubling part. The eircom account has her first name spelled incorrectly as 'Carroll' in any statements that are sent out. The letter she received from the 'Spanish Sweepstakes' had the very same misspelling. On the face of it you might think, so what or that it was just a coincidence, but, she has only been in the apartment for six months, and the only institutions that know where she lives are Eircom, ESB, Bord Gáis and Sky.

She placed a call to the eircom customer service, but was given the absolute run around when she explained the issue, and was put on hold in the upper complaints department for ages. After some time she hung up, but is planning to ring them back again to lodge an official complaint. However,Im not so sure how far she will get, especially since she shredded the original document.

Is it possible that Eircom have sold their customers addresses to a third party who in turn have sold them to the scamming company? Is there anyway you can check to see if they have passed them on?

I do realise the whole thing sounds a bit alarmist, and that there are plenty of other more pressing consumer issues to be worrying about. But its potentially a very serious thing if this is what they are doing..

rameire

the name could be taken from the PHONEBOOK, the one that millions of us around the country have access to on a daily basis,
which is also available ONLINE.

Walkman

The OP explained the name was spelt incorrectly on both which leads them to believe it was eircom. I too have received on of these letters from spain a couple of week ago, couldnt work out where they got my details. Might call eircom tomorrow, see what they say

Alun

Walkman wrote: »

The OP explained the name was spelt incorrectly on both which leads them to believe it was eircom. I too have received on of these letters from spain a couple of week ago, couldnt work out where they got my details. Might call eircom tomorrow, see what they say

Yes they did, but remember that eircom also produce the phonebook, so if there was a misspelling on the account name that would get carried through to the phonebook, both in paper form and online.

With the increasing restrictions placed on obtaining useful name and address databases by electronic means, some of these scammers are turning to buying in name and address databases created by physically scanning in paper phone books. This work is often farmed out to companies in countries like China and India. This practice has also been going on for a while, primarily for creating illegal electronic phone book CD's that allow reverse lookups.

Sponge Bob

The only situation in which you can blame eircom is if the number is ex directory

eircom used to release the whole phonebook on cd rom during the 1990s but stopped doing so after it was cracked in about 1998 and the (then) entire phonebook was on a warez site in text form .

rameire

Alun wrote: »

Yes they did, but remember that eircom also produce the phonebook, so if there was a misspelling on the account name that would get carried through to the phonebook, both in paper form and online.

With the increasing restrictions placed on obtaining useful name and address databases by electronic means, some of these scammers are turning to buying in name and address databases created by physically scanning in paper phone books. This work is often farmed out to companies in countries like China and India. This practice has also been going on for a while, primarily for creating illegal electronic phone book CD's that allow reverse lookups.

+1

BobTheBeat

rameire wrote: »

the name could be taken from the PHONEBOOK, the one that millions of us around the country have access to on a daily basis,
which is also available ONLINE.

Actually never thought of that.Thanks for POINTING me in the RIGHT direction.

Walkman, would be interested to hear what eircom say.

rameire

bobmeaney wrote: »

Actually never thought of that.Thanks for POINTING me in the RIGHT direction.

Walkman, would be interested to hear what eircom say.

sorry for the caps.

BobTheBeat

rameire wrote: »

sorry for the caps.

hey no bother,thanks for the info anyways