Wired News: First ‘Pretexting’ Charges Filed Under Law Passed After HP Spy Scandal
Wired News reports that two people have the dubious honor of being the first to face “pretexting” charges under the Telephone and Records Privacy Act of 2006, which was passed after Hewlett-Packard’s phone-record spying scandal was revealed.
In early 2006, then-HP Chair Patricia Dunn hired private investigators that used “pretexting” to acquire the personal phone records of board members and journalists in an effort to locate the source of leaks to the media. (“Pretexting” is a fancy word for “pretending to be someone else in order to get his or her phone records.”) There were various criminal and Congressional investigations. Dunn said she didn’t know that the investigators were pretexting, and the charges against her were eventually dismissed.
Now, Wired reports:
Authorities in Ohio filed an indictment last month against 28-year-old Vaden Anderson alleging that the defendant used pretexting to obtain confidential phone records from Sprint/Nextel. According to the indictment, Anderson served the phone company with a fake U.S. District Court civil subpoena to obtain the records.
If convicted, Anderson faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.
In a separate Alabama case, Nicholas Shaun Bunch was charged in November with using a victim’s name and the last four digits of his Social Security number to obtain confidential phone records from T-Mobile. He was also charged with aggravated identity theft for use of the victim’s Social Security number.
Bunch agreed to plead guilty to both charges and pay restitution in an amount to be determined by the court. The pretexting charge, as in the Ohio case, carries a possible prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000.
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