*** The following is not legal advice, and if concerned about whether you are engaging in entrapment, you must consult with a licensed attorney in your state.***
Black's Law Dictionary (5th ed. 1979) defines entrapment:
The act of officers or agents of the government in inducing a person to commit a crime not contemplated by him, for the purpose of instituting a criminal prosecution against him. According to the generally accepted view, a law enforcement official, or an undercover agent acting in cooperation with such an official, perpetrates an entrapment when, for the purpose of obtaining evidence of a crime, he originates the idea of the crime and then induce another person to engage in conduct constituting such a crime when the other person is not otherwise disposed to do so. Sorrells v. US, 287 U.S. 435; Sherman v. US, 356 U.S. 369.
Black's is probably at the 9th or 10th edition by now, but my 8th edition, which is packed away for moving, read virtually identically to the 5th edition definition.
From this layperson's perspective, the telemarketer has already violated the law, does not need to be induced to further violate the law, and faces at most a civil lawsuit brought by the private citizen doing the sting operation. And by intentionally not divulging a valid name, address, phone #, the telemarketer could be said to have induced John/Jane Q. Citizen to have to set up the sting operation to learn the true ID.
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