By Teresa von Fuchs
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Following complaints from consumer groups as well as Verizon Wireless, people search site Intelius has shut down its directory of cell-phone numbers. Intelius claims to have 90 million numbers in its database, and would sell info for $15 per report through its Website.
Last week, Verizon Wireless issued a statement calling Intelius's services an invasion of customer's privacy, and telling the company to "stop it."
In a statement, Intelius said the market was not ready for a cell phone directory and that was why it would discontinuing its efforts. However, the company still plans to offer reverse lookup, which will give the subscriber's name and the wireless carrier of an entered phone number.
The wireless industry attempted to create a similar directory a year ago; that was also shut down by consumer complaints.