IDENTITY THEFT BY THE HEWLETT-PACKARD BOARD?

The Wall Street Journal and CNBC reported today that the Board of Directors of HP may have committed identity theft in attempting to oust managers at HP. Identity theft is composed of three general crime categories, (1) credit fraud, (2) criminal identity theft, and (3) impersonation crimes. Apparently the HP Board, in an ill-considered attempt to seek out leaks of board meetings, engaged in “pretexting”. “Pretexting” is an impersonation crime in which phone records are illegally obtained by impersonating the victim with the telephone company and seeking call records. This activity is illegal and constitutes identity theft.

Commentators on CNBC provided excuses for the HP Directors by indicating that the “pretexting” was probably the work of a sub-contractor of a private investigator and that the Board was unaware of the activity. This excuse is unacceptable. “Pretexting” is a common and illegal tool used by investigators and could have been easily predicted as following a request by a high powered Board.

HP, once a genuine paragon of virtue, seems to have descended into the kind of bickering and management conflict that leads to the self justification of a serious identity crime.