This is somewhat of a poll I guess. I have this phone “friend”, I’ve had my little friend for many years now. I have moved several times, always getting a new unlisted phone number. Low and behold, a few months later my little friend is back. My friend usually hangs up when I answer, sometimes giving me a couple beeps or chirps from their phone before they hang up.
OK, we all have had psycho phone “buddies” before, but this one is really special. I have been receiving these calls for well over 10 years now, it varies, but usually 2-3 a week, sometimes more than 20 a week though.
When I lived in the Chicago area I filed a police report and had the phone company do their lame call-trace routine. I gave them numerous samples to work with, of course they failed to trace any of the calls. I now I have Verizon, and from what I can tell, they have newer technology that is basically fool-proof for tracing calls. The problem is, if I have them find out who my little friend is, I must agree to prosecute. Now I’m not sure I want to drag my little friend into court and all of that, but I just want them to get the message that, yeah, I have received your calls for the last up-teen years, how very nice of you to think of me for so long, now go away please.
Yeah, I do agree. But what if it turns out to be my niece or something? Then what happens to me if I say I’m not going to prosecute? The Verizon instructions say you MUST prosecute.
Well, you call it harassment in your OP… Would you still consider it harassment if you knew it was your niece?
Do you really want it to stop (if so, prosecute) or is it more a curious “I wonder who the hell it is?” thing that’s making you consider pursuing it? (if, not, stick with daydreaming and guessing games)
Times have apparently changed. I had a prank caller over a period of months in Chicago many years ago, and had it traced with the help of the police and the phone company to a very strange “friend” of mine. The cops called him up and gave him hell, and when I saw he was sufficiently chastened, I declined to press charges. There was no question at that time of my committing to press charges. I’m grateful to the cops and the phone company for resolving the situation; too bad they now require charges being pressed to perform the same service.
The last I heard, Verizon has no police powers. Their internal policy may be that they will only trap lines if the line owner agrees to prosecute but they have no power to press charges on your behalf or force the prosecuting attorney to pursue a case.
When I worked for a telco we had no such policy, although we would only set up call tracing in response to a police officer calling in with a case number, and we would only release the information to the police department. Could it be that you misunderstood Verizon and they only require that you have an active case, which won’t necessarily result in charges being pressed?
I’d ask for more specifics on this. You may find they actually say “you MUST prosecute or you will be charged for the cost of tracing these calls” or something like that. So if you prosecute criminally, no charges to you, otherwise you must pay the phone company.
That’s what happened to an aquaintance of mine on the QWest landline phone system. Turned out to be a relative, much family pressure not to prosecute, so he insisted the harrasser pay what QWest charged him (pretty high, IMHO).
I wish I could do this. The problem is I have real friends and business contacts that need to call me. If they fail to reach me (especially business contracts), it could mean lost income to me. I really can’t feasibly add people to my list before they call me.
You can prosecute and request a light “sentence” which may or may not include mental health care. Just do it. It’s ridiculous to have this crap go on for so long.
“Willing to prosecute” does not mean “have no choice but to prosecute.” As it stands now, it sounds like you are “willing to prosecute” given the information currently available to you so you can call Verizon and/or the police with a clear conscience. If in the course of the investigation it turns out it’s your niece who’s the perpetrator then you an re-assess whether you are still “willing to prosecute.”
If anyone’s interested in the process, if it’s the same as the company I worked for, what’ll happen is that after you get such a call you’ll hang up and dial a code on your phone (IIRC it was *57 on our system). This will “mark” the call in the switch. The phone company can then generate a list of “marked” calls to turn over to law enforcement.
Some telcos offer a feature where callers whose number doesn’t display on Caller ID are required to identify themselves before the cll is put through to you. Your phone rings and you hear a recorded announcement of their name and can decide whether to accept or reject the call.
In this area we are served by Telus. They have a feature, *69, which gives you the number of the last berson to call. It cost’s about $1.25. You can also call another number, which they offer you after the *69 and it will give you the name the phone is registered under.
I’d check it out. There’s probably something like it in your area.
We had been getting many hang ups a day, which had been getting steadily worse over the last couple of years, and we finally broke down and got Caller ID. It wasn’t enough. The calls kept coming in but were “Out of Area” - pick up the phone and someone hangs up. Not good when you’re home trying to rest.
We have that here now - it’s called Privacy Director. It’s just great. We now get very few phone calls and the few that can’t be identified have to tell Privacy Director who they are. PD then calls and a machine tells me [recorded name] is on the phone, please press 1 to recieve the call. Funny tho - my sister works for a major utility company and her company phone doesn’t register with Caller ID. If she calls me, she gets stuck in PD and I hear “Pick.Up.The.Phone… NOW.” Yep that’s my sister!
Personally, I’d be willing to prosecute. To be harrassed like this for more than a decade is not some kid playing with a phone. Kids get bored and move on to other things. If it was someone who didn’t mean to do it over and over again, they’d eventually tell you “I’ve got to take you off speed dial. Every time the dog touches the phone it calls you and I hang up.” or something. This is harrassment.
Secondly, how do you know this is a prankster? Based on the statement above, it sounds like telemarketer auto dialing machines calling you. The machines dial numbers, check that someone actually picks up, then puts you on hold while you go into a queue for a telemarketer to pick up the call. If everyone is busy, it will just hang up on you. This used to happen to me all the time before I put my number on the national do-not-call list. You would often hear clicks or chirps before hanging up.
Are you certain it is a person doing this or could it be telemarketers? How could someone have gotten your phone number if it is unlisted, and how are you certain it is a harasser?
I’ve tried the caller-ID and *69 callback, neither of them work for this particular caller. I believe the caller-ID comes up “unavailable”, and if you run to the phone to check the caller-ID, they have won already. The *69 thing didn’t work, it would always say something like “number not available”.
I suppose I should try the no-call list before anything else. My phone number is unlisted, but I do have to give my number out to family and friend of course, and a slew of businesses.
The caller’s profile is not to always immediately hang-up, sometimes they just sit there for a few seconds first, and there isn’t dead silence on the other end, I can hear a “work environment” going on in the background.
Honestly, it really sounds like an auto-dialer. Be aware that there is something like a three-month delay between signing up for the Do Not Call list and actually being placed on the list.
I have thought this too. It may very well be an auto dialer. I wouldn’t expect an auto-dialer to hang up immediately after I answer, but they just might do that.
Also, I rarely answer my phone. I have the ringer set very low, so I know it’s ringing, but I only answer if I am expecting a call, or looking for work, otherwise I rely on my answering machine. If I get the quick hang up though, I can be sure the frequency of those types of calls will increase.
Do you have a suspect? Some past relationship where the person didn’t get over it? The reason I ask is that a friend of mine had the exact same thing happen to her - for years. We always suspected her ex. Then one day he killed himself. After that, no more hang-up weirdo calls. I think it is a lucky thing he offed himself and not her.
I’d call up the phone company and ask for more details about the prosecution clause. It may be worth knowing who this person is.