Ex-Verizon worker accused of selling phone records

ATLANTA — A former Verizon Wireless technician is accused of using the company’s computers to obtain customers’ private call records — plus data showing where customers’ phones were — and then selling them to an unnamed private investigator, federal prosecutors said.

Daniel Eugene Traeger, who worked in Alabama, sold the confidential information from 2009 to 2014, authorities said.

The court records don’t say how many customer records were sold, or how they may have been used.

Shortly after the charges were filed last week, Traeger pleaded guilty to a felony count of unauthorized access to a protected computer as part of a plea deal, court records show. His lawyer didn’t return a phone message Monday.

Traeger logged into one Verizon computer system to gain access to customers’ call records, authorities said. He used another company system known as Real Time Tool to “ping” cellphones on Verizon’s network to get locations, according to the plea agreement.

He compiled the data in spreadsheets, which he sent to the private investigator for years, the court records show.

He faces up to five years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending a lesser sentence, according to terms of the plea agreement.