She received legal advice from Baskins and Hunsaker on the legality of pretexting that proved disastrous.

NEWYORKER: The Kona Files

The company has maintained it didn't specifically know about the pretexting method the private investigators employed.

FORBES: Magazine Article

By pretexting, or pretending to be someone else, Rapp could get phone records, bank records, even medical records.

NPR: Pretexting Is Alive and Well in Corporate America

He used unethical means (pretexting) to obtain information from the Heartland Institute, which has been a consistent opponent of his in the climate change debate.

FORBES: No Wonder We're Losing Jobs: Science In Our Culture Is Under Assault

John Kiernan, a Boston-based lawyer known to both DeLia and Gentilucci, professed to know of no cases or laws in which pretexting had been declared illegal.

NEWYORKER: The Kona Files

She had hired private investigators who may have used pretexting and other means to manipulate their way into the phone records and garbage bins of board members, employees and journalists.

FORBES: Companies, People, Ideas

In part because of the pretexting experience, H-P's board conducted lengthy discussions over the summer on how to disclose Ms. Fisher's allegations, even before the board decided to dismiss Mr. Hurd, the Journal has reported.

WSJ: SEC Probe Examines Hurd Exit From H-P

Four years ago, the SEC chided H-P's board for failing to disclose that a director resigned after a dispute over the "pretexting, " or snooping into personal phone records, of board members and reporters by H-P contractors.

WSJ: SEC Probe Examines Hurd Exit From H-P