Shades of Hewlett-Packard's pretexting scandal two years ago. But this time in Germany.

Deutsche Telekom has announced an investigation into a systemic spying operation to track calls between top executives and journalists.

This is another worrying sign in the corporate shenanigans now happening in Germany with scandals happening at Siemens, Volkswagen and Klaus Zumwinkel resigning as head of Deutsche Post in February after it found itself ensnared in the Liechtenstein tax evasion scandal.

But what's even more alarming is that this company is 32 per cent owned by the state, which gives it flavor of state espionage. To some, it might even bring back memories of the Stasi. And to make it worse, it's a phone company. And if that's not bad enough, Europe's biggest phone company.

"The credibility of a telecommunications company depends precisely on its ability to protect the huge amount of data that comes its way,'' Ulf Pose, president of the Association for Ethics in German Business told The Times.

There will be a massive fallout from this case with politicians and privacy watchdogs calling for blood. More details from Der Spiegel.