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Re:The fake reporter wanted to know about our software by jiveturkey on Monday October 19, 2020 @12:29PM (#24827929)
If it weren't BBC, I'd swear this article is paid placement. It is in the "Business" section, so maybe that section is like Inc. or Forbes or any other "news" magazine.

Anyway, in 2014, when the even happened (further implicating this being an advertorial) pretexting had been illegal in the US for 7 years already. I couldn't find any data on whether it's legal or not in EU/DE. (The event in question occurred in Munich.)

Re:The fake reporter wanted to know about our software by spzb on Monday October 19, 2020 @01:03PM (#24828347)
It's part of a series "exploring how technological innovation is set to shape the new emerging economic landscape". They do run some of these softer business features quite often. They have a regular one called "The Boss" which is usually a puff piece on some entrepreneur you'd never heard of. Sometimes they're quite interesting. This particular one is of fairly low quality. Everyone has an off day when they have to get some copy to their editor on a deadline