Websites owned by Philip John Sabin and associated companies

Apropos of nothing, all these websites are hosted on 212.230.207.100 to 213.230.207.109 (Netcalibre, UK) and appear to be owned and controlled by Philip John Sabin and/or Luxury Sleuth Ltd (11482506), We Just Compare Ltd (12485232). Funnily enough I can't find an ICO registration for these companies, maybe that just me doing it wrong. Perhaps anyone who knows it can add something to the comments?

www.britishluxuries.com
www.couponsleuth.co.uk
www.delivermeevents.co.uk
www.delivermeoffers.co.uk
www.delivermeoffers.com
www.distinguishedclub.co.uk
www.distinguisheddata.co.uk
www.distinguishedtraveller.co.uk
www.easylawnsltd.com
www.eventsleuth.co.uk
www.exclusive-travel-club.com
www.filmsleuth.co.uk
www.fusina.co.uk
www.grandcartours.com
www.homeimprovementsleuth.co.uk
www.investingtrends.co.uk
www.investmentsleuth.com
www.journeysofdistinction.co.uk
www.leads4sale.co.uk
www.leadsleuth.co.uk
www.luxurycartours.com
www.luxury-rallies.co.uk
www.luxuryrallies.com
www.luxurysleuth.co.uk
www.luxurysleuth.com
www.luxuryupdates.co.uk
www.mailhubs.co.uk
www.mxchecker.com
www.payhound.co.uk
www.savvyinvesting.co.uk
www.sleuth.media.
www.sleuthmarketing.co.uk
www.thepropertysleuth.co.uk
www.thriveland.co.uk
www.travellead.uk.
www.travellerstrust.com
www.travelsleuth.co.uk
www.travelsleuth.com
www.travelsleuth.uk.
www.usesend.co.uk
www.wejustcompare.co.uk
www.wejustcompare.com
www.wejustentertain.com
www.wejustinsure.com
www.wejustinvest.com
www.whichfuneralplans.wejustcompare.com
www.worldtradingpartners.com
www.worldtravelpartners.co.
www.worldtravelpartners.co.uk
www.wtplimited.com
www.youaregorgeous.co.uk
www.yourpricecomparison.com

T-Mobile & LBM: Just a coincidence?

In what appears to be a systematic plundering of customer records, T-Mobile staff have sold hundreds of thousands (or perhaps millions) of customer details to rival operators. Given that a lead for an expiring mobile phone contract seems to sell for around 50p to £2 a pop, this is possibly a significant slice of cash.

One question is: who sold the data. But a more pertinent one is: who bought the data?

It is probably just a sheer coincidence that I have previously documented unexplained cold calling for T-Mobile customers from a company called LBM Direct Marketing in the UK.

This current round of cold calling is on behalf of O2. LBM appears to have subscriber details - when they finally do talk to you rather than putting the phone down, they greet you by name. [..] The caller denied that they worked for LBM, and claimed to be working for O2 [..]. Our attempts to talk to a supervisor at LBM resulted in the caller putting the phone down. In this case, they do seem to know the name of the subscriber ([..] the phone had previously been with Vodafone and then transferred to T-Mobile)

This is probably not an isolated incident - expiring mobile phone contract leads are valuable and are regularly traded, and we're not just talking about T-Mobile here.. it seems to be very widespread, and T-Mobile deserve some kudos for tackling the issue.

Just in case you missed all the furore, T-Mobile have a news article about it: