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Talk of the Bay

Investigator vows to keep 'pretexting' despite backlash

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published September 25, 2006

Joseph DePante, a Melbourne private investigator, is scheduled to appear before a congressional subcommittee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to face questions about his reported involvement in the messy internal investigation at Hewlett-Packard Co.

The computer giant was trying to track down a boardroom leaker and has admitted getting phone records of everyone from directors to journalists using investigators like DePante, who make their living "pretexting." That's a professional term for masquerading as the customer in order to get confidential information from phone companies or financial institutions. Florida recently passed a law outlawing pretexting to get someone's phone records.

DePante, who's been in business for 20 years, reportedly sent a letter to customers in March bemoaning the crackdown on his lucrative business of securing a person's phone records through subterfuge.

"While we are very aware of the fact that there is no other service available that will come even remotely close in comparison to the insight the phone records provided, we assure all of you that we will find a way to go forward regardless," DePante wrote. "WE WILL NOT QUIT."

To reinforce that promise, DePante attached a price list. To find an active cell number: $75, with the promise of "No hit, no fee."

[Last modified September 25, 2006, 06:09:44]