Oddly, I suppose we have HP to thank for this

[unixronin]

It's official: "pretexting" to buy, sell or obtain personal phone records--except when conducted by law enforcement or intelligence agencies--is now a federal crime that could yield prison time.

It still boggles me that this was ever a "grey area" in the first place.  But now, it's officially a Federal offence to impersonate someone in order to obtain their phone records.  Doing so to obtain financial records was already illegal.

Comments

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Comment from my darling: "Gee, doesn't that fall under IDENTITY THEFT???"

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

You'd think so, wouldn't you...?