this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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[–] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 38 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Sounds like someone purchased, or otherwise gained access to, T-Mobile's targeted customer advertising and marketing profile data.

Or, the kind of information that data harvesting applications gather, and then sell to data brokers.

I wonder if they have a grudge against T-Mobile, this is an early stage of a larger plan, or if it's just for the lulz?

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago

Honestly, with some tweaks, sounds like not a bad way to start getting your random corporate social media enjoyers to care about privacy.

I wonder if someone is trying to cast shade on TMobile as an ISP who is monitoring content and violating consumer rights? Unless it’s a precursor to a follow-up extortion campaign for these customers, it seems like by itself it does more potential damage to TMobile then to the consumers.

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 31 points 3 days ago

And yet, there are no attempts to defraud the customer. No wording that asks for a ransom/payment, not even an email address that could possibly go to the bad actor. In fact, the email address in the letter is a real email address for T-Mobile’s legal department.

Hopefully it's just for good old fashioned shits and giggles.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 21 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Its scary some entity got the data. But its also kinda funny.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

If you're curious for the price of data: source

Basic Consumer Data Lists: £40 to £120 per 1,000 records.

Verified Consumer Data Lists: £120 to £240 per 1,000 records.

Highly Targeted Consumer Lists: £240 to £400+ per 1,000 records.

It's about that order of magnitude.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

T-mobile customer names and addresses...maybe even more, who knows

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This info isn’t difficult to get.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It sure isn't legally public available either.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s available for, legally (unless they’re a Senator or House Representative), for anybody with money.

There are no privacy laws in the US, there’s no law that they can violate by selling data about you and since that data is worth money then it gets sold openly.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

It’s amusing that people assume their data is private just because they don’t think it should be public.

That isn’t to say I don’t think it should be private, but it simply isn’t.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 days ago

The names and addresses of people using T-Mobile? I’ve not dug into it, but there are definitely databases out there with phone number => provider, and plenty of databases with phone number => name and address. I assume there are multiple out there than combine them.

Are those lists complete? Absolutely not. But complete enough to send out a bunch of fake warnings to some randos.

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

About my browsing history: this was for a novel I am writing about terrible terrible people who should never do that

[–] dublet@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Ah, you're going for the Pete Townshend defence..

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone -3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

How is it a fake letter? Sounds like a physical tangible thing.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

🙄it’s not from T-Mobile, it’s a forgery. And, unless the letters are actually cake, we can infer that “fake” in this case means just that.

Please spare us the reddit pedantry. There are much more intelligent discussions to be had around this topic without avoiding it entirely to inject some grammar nitpicking.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is there a possibility they're cake? I could go for some cake.

[–] 2FortGaming@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

They hating, but his got a chuickle outta me

[–] SPRUNT@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

You're confusing "fake" with "imaginary".