Icon Insurance specialises in insurance policies for smaller and growing businesses: cover for the home office, small office-based business insurance, Professional Indemnity cover (including SecurITy for IT professionals) and Lawsuit legal expenses cover. Our products and services are available on-line and/or off-line to businesses and residents of the United Kingdom

When sleuthing for information, avoid calling the target yourself because it could damage your reputation if you get caught. Instead, ask a colleague not linked to you, or a specialist consultant, to call them up and find out more - but brief them well first.

And call at lunchtime when it is likely that less senior people will answer the phone. They may not have been briefed on what may and may not be divulged, so you could be lucky!

Company A simply asked: 'We are interested in the press reports about the new product - is there any more information that you could send us?'

They weren't deterred by a negative response. They asked some other innocuous questions about the product, information that they already knew, then added, 'This sounds really exciting - when will we be able to get hold of the product in the shops?'

In this case, the secretary released the desired information.