In a Marketplace commentary, Ian Ayres (of whom I'm a big fan) has proposed an interesting solution to the problem of pretexting: companies should notify consumers when someone requests information about them. Presumably that would tip off consumers that they had been the subject of pretexting if they had not themselves sought the information. Ayres also suggests that people should find out automatically when someone has obtained access to their credit reports. At present, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act you can find out who has examined your credit report, but you are not notified automatically unless you subscribe to a service which provides that information. The only circumstance I know of in which statutes confer upon consumers a right to be notified is, in fact, the FCRA: the 2003 FACTA amendments oblige furnshers of information to tell consumers when they send negative information about the consumer to a credit bureau under ยง 1681s-2(a)(7)(A). I would be curious to know how well that notice requirement works, but in the meantime, Ayres's suggestions make sense.