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Telephone Trouble

  1. poppy8sd
    Member

    My telephone has been compromised. Phone company said there isn't a tap on my line, they are wrong. I've been out of my home, living in a hotel, for weeks, while it was repaired. After I moved back (this week): a stranger called, asked why I called his office phone, no message,
    just my phone number, at night --100 times, in less than three hours. I didn't.

    I know who did. I don't know how to prove, how to stop it.

    Also don't know if: digital eavesdropping --i.e. capturing Internet posting, e-mail, etc., happening; how to determine, stop it, anything about electricity, tech 'footprints.' I don't know what to do about it. Do you? Ideas welcomed.

    Though I've seen topics here as diverse/irrelevant to blogging as wild animals, pets, if this topic is inappropriate/wrong/offensive (?) in this Forum, say so and I'll ask Admin. to delete. I'm a little rattled to look for a website-Forum, if you know of one that covers/ offers help on this or any related topic, please post name or link. Thanks,

    Poppy
    BTW: there is NO such thing as a 'device' that can 'detect' a tap on a phone line; ads for those: a scam.

  2. raincoaster
    Member

    Poppy, that's not a tap; that's spoofing. Or someone broke into your home and made calls. Hell, contractors pull that crap all the time.

    In either case, the issue is not with your phone. Someone is either spoofing your number on Caller ID or they used your phone while you were away.

    A Tap is when someone taps into your line and records what you say. Best way to find out if that's the case is to hire a private detective who specializes in this: they are not cheap.

  3. poppy8sd
    Member

    "Spoofing"? Okay, thanks Rain, I'll look it up. (Seen the word, don't know definition.)

    The calls happened on the line after I was back. --No one was INside my home to use the phone to do it.

    WHY do "contractors pull that crap all the time" --what is wrong with them? What do they think they are getting/doing?

    Or: people who are still emotionally stunted to age 9 all go into contracting/home repair???

  4. poppy8sd
    Member

    Every person on the phone I talked to subsequently: it was extremely hard to hear--that's new--yet each said they were talking in normal voice, could hear me without any problem.

    Any idea what a det. charges?

  5. raincoaster
    Member

    Not at all. It's just that in any group, there are people who will pull shit. Contractors are alone in homes a lot, so the ones who are inclined to pull stuff do. But if the calls happened when you were not at home, obviously it wasn't the contractors.

    Spoofing is just like email spoofing, where a spam or virus appears to come from one place but really comes from somewhere else. Someone is pretending to be calling from your phone. Either that or their caller ID isn't recording the area code, and it's some innocent person in another area code calling that business.

  6. raincoaster
    Member

    Detectives will charge $200 a day and up.

    And the variable volume in sending/receiving is just a basic phone thing. It indicates nothing whatsoever in terms of tapping. Tell your phone service about it and they should fix it.

  7. raincoaster
    Member

    Penny just dropped.

    Do you mean to say that someone left a message with your phone number??? Or just typed it in like a pager? FFS, anyone could have done that, from any phone in the world. Please.

  8. poppy8sd
    Member

    Oh, thanks, Rain! (You do get my avatar, right? !)

    $200??? Yikes.... Well, it might be worth it, IF it gets that person INto jail. Sick people don't stop.

  9. poppy8sd
    Member

    Sorry, if I wasn't clear: a business phone with a built-in answering/recording device was called --100 times in 2 hours, 45 minutes. The device RECORDED the calls came FROM My phone number, but no voice message and there wasn't any "type"/text message inserted --no "message" of any kind.

    No person had access to my PHONE or location of the phone at the start-finish times the calls were made. The person who got the calls & I determined: whoever did it had the ability to hit "re-dial" because phone number could not be "dialed" fast enough in that amount of time otherwise.

  10. raincoaster
    Member

    Spoofing is the art of using tech skills to pretend to have a communication originate at one place when in fact it is originating somewhere else.

    There is absolutely no reason for you to conclude that this person has access to your phone line. A computer is probably involved (most phones used by telemarketers have them built in, or go through a computerized switchboard) so that computer is spoofing your account.

    REDIAL is not an issue; computers can issue commands that fast. That's what's happening. Someone, probably a phone spam telemarketing company, is spoofing your number. Bad ones just call and call until they connect with a human, at which point they switch to the script that's pre-recorded.

    I should send an invoice.

  11. poppy8sd
    Member

    "...no reason for you to conclude that this person has access to your phone line"
    --I might have agreed with you --once, before Numerous things were stolen/removed FROM INSIDE my location where the items once existed. --I had 'em, now GONE (--before the move). --Way NOT a telemarketer, Other things have happened, that add up to: only one person.

    I suppose it's possible, a computer was used....

    Prove, Stop?

    Go ahead, send an Invoice, I'll pay it, second Tuesday of next week.

    Thanks, Rain.

  12. raincoaster
    Member

    Detectives are available in the yellow pages, or through your local police department.

  13. cornell
    Member

    Going to the slightly more mundane for a second, have you tried unplugging EVERY phone enabled device?

    I have had it before where a dial-up computer has picked up a virus that will call random numbers. Also had a similar thing where a telephone handset got it into its "brain" that it was going to dial random numbers from the memory.

    *shrugs*

    Spoofing, while possible is not technically easy and requires (usually) access to the telephone exchange.

  14. raincoaster
    Member

    Poppy, you remind me of late-stage Agatha Christie books, where at the end the detective yells, "It's YOU, Mrs. Smith! The clue was the colour of the nail polish on the corpse's toenails" but this is the first time you've heard that the corpse had nail polish on.

    If people have been stealing your things, call the police. Simple as that.

  15. disembedded
    Member

    :O !!!

  16. poppy8sd
    Member

    ~Cornell: Hiya! Longtimenosee. Your idea, very good one. I sorta remember that happening to me once --new to logging-on to Internet, pages of random numbers, and once from a virus. But only two things unpacked, the landline phone instrument and the puter. The puter wasn't even plugged in when I learned what happened.

    Your idea such a good one: I will keep it for reference and I am sure it will help others, who find this thread in *search* --Thanks for reply.

    ~Rain: You feel 'sandbagged' by what I wrote? Come on over, stand in my shoes: One day I went to throw out the trash --my car --GONE (from parking space) --30 minutes before city inspectors were arriving. "People"? I confronted the person I suspected, demanded to know WHY he towed my car.
    "I didn't tow your car, the tow company took it."

    Then: he admitted he called the tow company --to a judge. Judge: ordered him to pay the charges and have my car brought back. Outcome? IGNORED court order. He didn't pay. Lincoln, customized Bill Blass design, less than 46,000 miles: tow company sold my car --for storage fees --for 300 bucks. --Judge --police? Couldn't care less.

    "people" --nope, just one Super sicko. So many things stolen from me: runs to four PAGES.
    My car acquired 14 flat tires --in 17 months, while it was parked. --Numerous police reports filed; they won't do Thing One: no PROOF who did it. His garage: packed all the way to the roof --with dozens of sets of dishes --all different styles, toys of little children, maternity clothes from 1960s, boxes of men's shirts (NOT his size) -still wrapped from the laundry. --You know of anyone who would care enough to pick up their shirts, then move out and LEAVE them? He's a major thief, seriously sick.

    "simple"? Perception Vs. Reality. Using the phone: a FEDERAL crime. Think he cares? It's considered a form of Identity Theft. Police, FBI? --They can't be bothered. FBI: refused to even take a report.

    I get the Agatha Christie reference. If I said who I suspect, listed ALL the things he has done THEN asked:
    'How to Prove HE used my phone line, How to Stop it' --your answer would have been --different?

    ~Disembedded: what can I say...

    I know WHO used my telephone line --to harass a local stranger. I DON'T know:
    how to Prove it
    how to Catch him
    Stop it --in case it's been set up technically, to repeat
    how to Get him arrested
    If you do: Please reply. He's a serious mess, been a mess for decades, not going to stop, prison is the only solution.

  17. raincoaster
    Member

    Police. 911.

  18. timethief
    Member

    Agreed. Posting here is not going to put him in prison. You don't have to "prove" anything. Tell the police and let them do their job.

  19. poppy8sd
    Member

    Police? Most people have a romantic perception of what police do. Police in the US: act only after all the work is done, everything laid out --for them, despite slick TV cop shows that show them doing actual work. If cops in the state where I live actually did what the public thinks they do: there wouldn't be any gangs --or 'grow' houses in pricey neighborhoods, drive-by shootings, crystle meth or distribution, car chop-shops, smuggling, coyotes, ransom, fake ID printers, gang rape. Federal police? FBI: had a paid informant living INSIDE the San Diego house of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers --for nearly two years. Sept. 12: newspapers were able to publish the names of all 19 hijackers --given by? The feds: issued visa to remain in the US to two of the hijackers --12 months AFTER Sept. 11 attack.

    Before I "posted": I filed a police report. They: aren't even going to link it to the 21 other reports I've filed, all on the same suspect. They told me to contact the FBI. The FBI said: it is considered a form of Identity Theft, now covered by the new laws enacted after 9-11. What are they going to do? Absolutely nothing. They told me to contact: utterly worthless inept FTC (Federal Trade Commission). They took a report; they'll get to it, some day. Whenever that day is: they don't have authority to arrest, they keep any money they figure out how to collect, which is seldom, they won't go to authorities for prosecution --unless someone hands them proof.

    Since there aren't any new crimes, think he isn't going to stop, I want to know How to Prove who did it, so I thought someone who had experience or knew about it could say how to handle it, what worked.

    Police aren't going to solve or even leave their desks, so I'm looking for a techie, a gizmo, an idea, a source to prove it or a referal/link to a website --before one of us buys a gun.

  20. timethief
    Member

    Police aren't going to solve or even leave their desks, so I'm looking for a techie, a gizmo, an idea, a source to prove it or a referal/link to a website --before one of us buys a gun.

    Accept the fact that there is no legal technical fix and that you don't have what it takes to "handle" this.

    Presumably you don't want to become a criminal too. Well, if you did then know this: any illegally obtained evidence against him cannot be accepted in a court of law anyway. So, thinking you can out smart him IMO is not very smart at all. Either you (1) go to the police or (2) you move or (3) you remain "engaged" in this tawdry drama.

    Continuing to remain "engaged" is not healthy. I advise letting go, getting the hell out of there and living the real life you deserve to live.

  21. raincoaster
    Member

    So, because the police are unreliable, you expect people in blogl help forum to solve this problem?

    Call the police or become okay with the problem as you perceive it to be.

  22. nosysnoop
    Member

    ~ twilight zone music ~

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