Columnist Claims Identity Theft After Investigating Fraud At Investment Firm

from the whodunit? dept

Well known financial columnist Herb Greenberg has a fascinating article about how someone tried to snoop into his phone records. Apparently, someone pretending to be him turned on online reporting for both his Verizon cell phone and his SBC home phone. While he can't prove it, his suspicion is that it has something to do with a company he has written negatively about. The bogus online account opening occurred right after he wrote a negative article about investment firm Allied Capital. This could just be a coincidence, but once he found out that the same thing happened with both Verizon and SBC (he credits Verizon for at least sending a paper letter to his home notifying him of this -- something SBC didn't do), he called around to various sources for many different stories and asked them to check their own systems. It apparently happened to a bunch of sources -- all of whom had been investigating Allied Capital. He says he has no proof, and he knows the FBI is investigating, but as a reporter, he couldn't wait any longer and had to get the story out there.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.