Although the U.S. Congress adjourned on Saturday without acting on lawmaking to censor pretexting in the wake of the scandal involve Hewlett - Packard ( HP ) , California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sign a bill last Friday that forbids the pattern in the state .

The California anti - pretexting natural law , Senate Bill 202 , goes into effect on Jan. 1 and will disallow telephone society from make personal telephone career records available to anyone other than the original caller . The law of nature specifies that the written consent of the original caller is needed to release the disk to any other individual or delegacy . Fraudulent attempts to obtain the records will be punishable by fines of up to US$ 2,500 or a poky full term up to one year . And a individual who violates the law and has a late judgment of conviction faces a fine of up to $ 10,000 or up to one year in clink .

The law applies to both landline and prison cell phone record .

California previously did not have jurisprudence addressing the pretexting issue . Meanwhile , a national flier that would ban pretexting was leave on the table Saturday when Congress recessed until Nov. 9 . Despite pressure from members of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee , the full House break down to act on the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act .

That bill would have allowed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) to seek civil penalties against businesses that obtain personal data point under false pretence .

The commission has been looking into privacy concern related to pretexting since early this year , but the way out come to a header last month when HP revealed that it had used questionable investigative techniques in the surveillance of circuit card members , employee and newsperson . HP official were called before Congress last week to testify about the investigation .

In pretexting , someone pretends to be a sound troupe customer in parliamentary procedure to derive access to personal telephone book such as call log .

The IDG News Service contribute to this story .