Old Time Pretexting

So “pretexting” is all over the news these days. That’s all of the shady ways (read: lying) that certain private investigators, or services used by them, get hold of your bank and phone and other records for nefarious (or not-so-nefarious) reasons. It’s part of what HP did in investigating leaks from their board of directors’ meetings.

That HP engaged in such shady practices and that people are out there doing this sort of nassssty things, has caused much consternation among the public and the pundits and the politicians. Except …

… where have we seen this all before.

Oh, yeah. On TV. I don’t know about you, but I remember this sort of thing being done all the time during the 70s and 80s on TV. Magnum did it. Rockford did it. The Simon Brothers did it. The Equalizer did it. If you were a TV detective/PI, you regularly either called up the phone company or some similar agency and lied about who you were, or you called your friend down at the DMV or the Phone Company or wherever to get them to feed you some information.

Really. They all did it. And nobody batted an eyelash. Nobody said, “Look at the terrible lessons they’re teaching our kids these days! We must drive these shows from the air!”

And, today, it’s a cardinal sin, capable of toppling CEOs and prompting Senatorial committees.

Progress?

Of course, on consideration, we don’t have many TV detectives any more. Lots of cop shows. Very few detective shows. I wonder if that means something, too.