A pretext for pretexting

From InfoWorld.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to make two Florida companies stop telephone pretexting and to pay back victims of the practice.

One of the companies, Action Research Group, has been linked in press reports to last year's Hewlett-Packard pretexting scandal, which led to the resignation of HP Chairman Patricia Dunn last September. The second company, Eye in the Sky Investigations, has "performed services" for Action Research Group, the complaint said....

While trying to clamp down on a boardroom leak dating back to 2005, HP hired private investigators who obtained telephone records of company employees and journalists by falsely representing themselves as account holders or telephone company employees.

pretexting

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