Press release, July 5, 2006: Taking action to protect Illinoisans’ private information from identity thieves, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today signed Senate Bill 2554 outlawing the practice of “pretexting” in Illinois. Pretexting is pretending to be an account holder, or to have authorization to access an account, to obtain cell phone records, long distance call records, a person’s physical location and other personal records, such as GM OnStar information and any other account information relating to that person, such as dating service information or post office boxes. The Governor called for tough new restrictions on the practice in January. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Illinois is among the first states in the nation to fight cell phone record pretexting.”