A new word has barged into the language, whether anyone needed it or not. Pretexting is a new term for an old scam: pretending to be someone you’re not, in order to obtain something of value. In other words, using a pretext.

Private investigators had been using the term for several years to tell how they could track down deadbeats and faithless lovers. But it burst into the public consciousness after a savage board-meeting squabble at the big computer company Hewlett-Packard. The board chairwoman, Patricia C. Dunn, had hired investigators who used the questionable practice to trace leaks of confidential board business. An ensuing uproar now has caused her to resign from the company’s top job.

She acknowledged that her investigators had used pretexting to get phone records of board members and nine news reporters, including one at The Wall Street Journal. She said she caught the leaker, but in the process she lost her job and threw the entire pretexting industry into turmoil. Authorities are looking into possible criminal prosecutions.

Here is how the system works: Scores of pretexters with names like AwarenessTech and WebWatcher have been advertising on the Internet with come-ons like “Catch Cheating Spouse.” They typically obtain their target’s Social Security number or at least the last four digits and perhaps the street address, birth date or some other personal data.

They call or e-mail the phone company and persuade a gullible employee either that they are the customer or else that for some reason they are calling in his or her behalf. The unsuspecting employee provides the records of recent calls – dates, durations and the numbers of the people at the other end of the phone.

Is this practice illegal? A 1999 federal law, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, makes pretexting a crime if it is used to acquire financial information or even a consumer’s address or the name of his or her bank from a consumer or financial institution. But if a private investigator, say, calls a bank to find out whether a depositor’s check will clear, he is acting legally as long as he does not pretend to be the customer or engage in any other false pretenses.

With the legal status of pretexting still somewhat murky, people can protect themselves against the practice by taking care not to give out personal information on the phone, by mail or on the Internet unless they have initiated the communication and know whom they are giving it to.

The Federal Citizen Information Center, a government service, also recommends careful scrutiny of all financial statements, prompt reporting of any discrepancies, keeping personal records in a safe place, destroying discarded financial papers and ordering yearly credit reports from the three major credit reporting agencies.

Snooping is on the increase. New legislation may be coming, but in the meantime personal watchfulness is essential.