The Information Commissioner's Office filed a formal report with the Ministry of Justice that included support for prison sentences for those who break the public trust by selling personnel information, The Times of London Online reported Tuesday.
T-Mobile, Britain's fourth largest phone carrier, said it was a target in the investigation that primarily involved selling information on phone service contracts to third parties, so competitors could make cold calls to customers just before their current contracts expired.
The ICO said, "the number of records involved runs into the millions and it appears that substantial amounts of money changed hands."
Some industry sources said a rogue T-Mobile employee was the cause of the scandal and that the number of violations was in the thousands, not millions. T-Mobile, with 16.6 million customers, suggested it was an industrywide problem.
"While it is deeply regrettable that customer information has been misappropriated in this way, we have proactively supported the ICO to help stamp out what is a problem for the whole industry," T-Mobile said in a statement.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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