How do I find the Source of Harassing Phone Calls?
Much of the time the source of a harassing or obscene call will show the phone number as an unlisted, unpublished, *private number*. So what is the difference between the number label of unlisted, unpublished, non-published, private or anonymous?
All the above labels do not mean the same thing as many people assume. Even if the calls you are getting are not threatening you; they can be a HUGE annoyance. There are various options available to you to put an end to these calls. In most cases, simply uncloaking the individual is enough to bring your problems to swift and successful resolutions.
So What types of phone calls can generally considered to be harassing?
1. The Perp phones and uses obscene or menacing language.
2. The Perp phones repeatedly to *sell* you something you don’t want.
3. The Perp phones repeatedly and hangs up. (Designed Annoyance calling)
4. The Perp phones and breathes heavy (etc…) or remains silent; which can intimidate you.
5. The Perp phones and utters threats toward you, your family or friends.
How often do I have to get these calls to consider them actual harassment?
Generally any unwelcome phone call is considered a harassment with the exception of a wrong number (unless they keep getting the *wrong number*). Your telephone company nor law enforcement will take any action unless phone calls are frequent. So what is frequent? On the other hand, if a caller threatens you with specific threats; such as bodily harm to you or your family then the telephone company or law enforcement will usually take prompt action. They have an obligation to do so. If you are aware this is happening to you, you can tape-record the call — you can tell the caller you are doing it right in the middle of them yelling/talking at you. So long as it has been said, in most places this is legal to do so long as the other *party* has been told.
What other options do I have when I get harassing calls?
You should call your phone company first. Different phone companies have different policies on if you should call them or the police first. Some phone companies may ask you to call their company’s local head office and explain the details of the situation. Other phone companies may require you file a formal complaint with the police before they will deal with the matter at all.
Whatever the policy, you should contact your phone company and find out what their policy is in matters concerning harassment calls. If the perpetrators threats are or feel to you quite serious and your life or property is threatened or if the obscene phone calls are very frequent then call your local police immediately; file a report and provide all the details and information you can. If these repetitious calls are from a malicious/vindictive person and they are making threats the phone company will generally report the number to law enforcement themselves. This is often a good thing as the police may take it a bit more seriously.
If this has been going on for awhile, try to keep notes on the dates and times of the calls and if the caller sounds male or female; describe their voice as best you can. If this caller said anything at all and if not, was there any background noise you can recall? Make notes of everything the caller says and any other details on background noise. If any phone number AT ALL was displayed on your caller ID you should note that down too. Many times there will be a sequence of 000-0000 or a letter prior to a number.
What does it mean when my phone rings and there appears to be no one on the line?
Sometimes receiving frequent hang up calls means someone is checking to see if you are home. This can feel and really be quite threatening, especially with children in the home. It can also be those **PESKY** telemarketers we all just *love* who use computers for what is called predictive dialing. (Usually around Supper Time, right!?) This allows them to call anyone where the computer dials many phone numbers at the same time. If a line is picked up, the computer finds a sales representative who is not occupied at that time and connects the call. That is why you often experience a short delay and perhaps have said *hello* already twice or more.
If all the sales reps are busy then you either hear only silence or line noise. These types of calls are called “abandoned calls.” If you are receiving many abandoned calls in a day, you can call the annoyance department of your local telco and complain. I mean Really complain! Tell them you are switching carriers if they do nothing to help you get rid of this problem.
What options do I have to stop other kinds of unwanted calls?
To avoid unwanted calls you can use some of the many services offered by your phone Telco. One is Call Screening (*60):Your phone can be programmed to reject calls from selected numbers with a service called Call Screen (Telcos use different names for this service). Instead of ringing on your line, these calls are routed to a recording telling the perp you will not take the call. This alone will often be enough to dissuade a harasser as they know they are not going to get through…UNLESS they just start using a different #. This all ends up depending on what the perps intentions are – How Serious they are.
With Call Screen, you can also program your telephone to reject calls from the number of last person who called. This handy feature allows you to block calls even if you do not know the phone number.Most Telcos charge a fee for this service. It’s not a foolproof way to stop harassing calls but it is a good start. As I mentioned, a determined caller will just use a different number to bypass the block. Another limitation to call screen/block is that it does not work on long distance calls from outside your service area.
You can also use Priority Ringing: This works by assigning a special ring to calls from up to 10 or more numbers which you are most likely to want to answer. Like the ones you might have opn your speed dial. The rest can be routed to voice mail. There are ways callers can get around Priority Ringing when it is used as a screening tool. The perp just switches phone lines to avoid the distinctive ring. You can also try Call Return (*69): This allows you to call back the number of last person who called, even if you are unable to answer the phone.
Call Return can sometimes be used to stop harassing callers by allowing you to call the harasser back without knowing their phone number. P)lease exercise caution with this method of discouraging harassing callers as it can make matters worse by making the Perp angry and thus escalates the problem. This service is on a per usage basis. You can use Caller ID to identify the caller if they are not blocking their number or use a service offered by most phone companies called Privacy Manager. That works with Caller ID to identify incoming calls that have no telephone numbers.
Then – Calls identified as “anonymous,” unavailable,”out of area” or “private” must identify themselves in order to complete the call. Before your phone rings, a recorded message tells the caller to unblock the call, enter a specific code (like the inbound call blocking devices mentioned above), or record their name. When your phone rings, you can choose to accept or reject the call, send it to voice mail, and/or send a special message to telemarketers instructing them to put you on their “do not call” list. I know what MY *special message* to them is!
Area Codes in USA:
Due to number portability and VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phones the old system of classifying area codes by phone number is not always valid. It keeps getting more complex with each passing month. One thing remains the same however and that is the good old wired to the house land line phone.
These numbers are assigned area codes according to their geography. Telephone area codes are the first three digits of any phone number in the USA, Canada and some other parts of the world but not many others. ANY landline number can be traced to its physical address and the person who pays the bill. This is one of the Easiest traces to do and is Never wrong. You can do that here at: http://unlisted-telephone-numbers.com/ which is specifically for Land line numbers.