End Harassing Phone Calls

If you have been the recipient of harassing phone calls, know there are procedures to deal with this unpleasant situation and most importantly, you will be believed and helped if a report is made to phone service providers and law enforcement personnel.

Not all harassing phone alls come from cranks, some are from debt collection agencies that can, just like crank callers, be quite scary and threatening.

Even if you are behind with payments on an item, they still have to abide by legal conditions governing their behavior.

If the problem is serious, and knowing your rights in the matter and stating them to the agency does not put a stop to the nasty calls, seek help from local consumer advocate agencies.
 

Stop Harassing Phone Calls

Crank calls that are not scary, but merely annoying (please always check this with a law enforcement officer) can be blocked from reaching you by local phone companies, if you know the number calls come from.

A small machine can be purchased to show caller ID, if your phone does not already offer this option.

Telephone marketers seem to come in waves, if you are experiencing an unusual amount of sales calls, contact the National Do Not Call Registry operated by the Federal Trade Commission to be added to their list.

It is worth mentioning some dead calls, where there is no answer when you pick up the phone are due to marketer’s switch boards calling you and failing to find a free representative, so they hang up.

Gather all the relevant information, which includes a log of times and dates of calls, a description of the call, (if the voice sounded young or old, male or female, accent, speech impairments, etc) content of the call, backgrounds sounds and the caller ID.
 

Report Harassing Phone Calls

Any calls featuring heavy breathing, threats to life or property are illegal and should be reported to local police, immediately.

Try to recall as much detail as you can about any calls, keeping writing materials by the phone and record them if possible.

Calls may, in rare cases be a part of a stalker’s activities, so check any unusual occurrences and inform all family and friends to be vigilant.

Make a police report and one to your phone service provider. Either may decide to place a trap on your line.

This means the number will be logged on the next call, but you still need to keep a record or times and dates.

There is no charge for this service. If no trap is recommended, but you want to find out who is calling, and pass on that information to security providers, consider using a service called “Call Trace.” This service will charge a fee for each call it records.

As soon as a crank caller has hung up the phone, the recipient must call *57 (or 1157 on rotary phones) on the same phone, to record the details. This is a subscription service that needs to be arranged in advance and only works on local numbers.