I read this in a Yahoo news article:

As part of the masquerade, the investigators used the Social Security numbers of the people involved to dupe the phone companies into turning over the records. Although a frequent tactic, the trickery — known as “pretexting” — tests the bounds of California law.

How is pre-texting not fraud?  How is it not identity theft?

If a person says they are someone they are not, then that is fraud!  Plain and simple.  Dictionary.com‘s definition is very straightforward and is consistent with the above conclusion: dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fraud&x=0&y=0