IDENTITY THEFT BY PRETEXTING IS ILLEGAL – CALIFORNIA’S TOP LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER LAYS DOWN THE LAW

Surrounding the controversy at Hewlett Packard concerning obtaining telephone records of journalists through impersonation, the California Attorney General has made it very clear that this practice is against the law. The impersonation crime of “pretexting” is clearly an identity theft crime.

The office of the California Attorney General commented that state investigators “have sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against individuals inside Hewlett Packard as well as outside the company.”