State RegulationsNJ specificDifficulty 2/5
An investigator for an insurer plans to pose as a prospective employer in order to extract personal details about a claimant from her neighbors. Under New Jersey's insurance information privacy rules, how is this technique treated?
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why D is correct
A pretext interview is the practice of obtaining personal information through a false identity or false pretenses. New Jersey's privacy rules for insurance, N.J.A.C. 11:2-22, restrict pretext interviewing tightly: it is not a routine tool, and it is permitted only in the narrow circumstances the rules define, under the supervision of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. An investigator inventing a job offer to mine a claimant's neighborhood for gossip falls outside those limits and violates the privacy framework.
Why the other options are wrong
- A) The rules constrain pretext techniques; they are never an encouraged cost-saving shortcut.
- B) No rule requires a pretext interview before any claim decision — the technique is restricted, not mandated.
- C) Curiosity is not an authorized purpose; only the narrowly defined circumstances the rules permit justify the technique.
Memory hook
A fake identity to dig up facts is a pretext interview — tightly rationed, never routine.