Sprint Will Lock Down Your Records, If You Call & Ask

Following on Kim Zetter's piece yesterday on how to protect yourself from private investigators fraudulently getting your phone records ("pretexting"), I called up my wireless provider to see if I could get into my account without the password I placed on the account.

As Kim wrote:

Choose Your Own Passwords. Companies love using Social Security numbers and dates of birth as authentication, despite the fact that neither bit of info is very private. Insist that your health insurance provider and phone companies allow you to use a customer-designated password or a unique identifying number instead. Don't let them bully you into using your Social Security number, and use different passwords for different accounts.

Though I placed a pretty decent password on the account, I was able to convince the representative to send me a copy of my last month's phone bill by providing my social security number, something that's not hard to buy online.

Acknowledging the issue the rep placed a note on the account that no one can get into the account without the password, even if they know my social security number. Now, If I forget the password, I will have to go to a Sprint store and show identification to get at my records or reset the password, according to the representative.

For many people that may be too much of a hassle, but I appreciate that Sprint locked down the account. Too bad there's not a simple check box on the account management system so that people who want this extra (but by no means perfect) level of security can get it without having to bug a call rep.

I'll try talking my way in next week and let you know what happens.