看到几则关于惠普的新闻：

Pretexting is to pretend that you are someone who you are not, telling an untruth, or creating deception. The practice of pretexting involves tricking a telecom carrier into giving up personal information, in most cases, with the scammer pretending to be the customer. At present, the majority of wireless providers consider the practice of pretexting as illegal. 在美国联邦市民信息中心的解释是：

Pretexters use a variety of tactics to get your personal information. For example, a pretexter may call, claim he’s from a survey firm, and ask you a few questions. When the pretexter has the information he wants, he uses it to call your financial institution. He pretends to be you or someone with authorized access to your account. He might claim that he’s forgotten his checkbook and needs information about his account. In this way, the pretexter may be able to obtain personal information about you such as your Social Security number (SSN), bank and credit card account numbers, information in your credit report, and the existence and size of your savings and investment portfolios.

Keep in mind that some information about you may be a matter of public record, such as whether you own a home, pay your real estate taxes, or have ever filed for bankruptcy. It is not pretexting for another person to collect this kind of information. 原来指的是和“社交工程学”类似的一种通过欺诈获得用户信息的方法，记录备忘。