Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: davef@brspyr1.brs.com (Dave Fiske) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Caller ID Linked to Decline in Harrassing Calls Message-ID:Date: 18 Aug 89 18:32:35 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY Lines: 47 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 309, message 6 of 8 In article , GABEL@qcvax.bitnet writes: > The following article appeared on page 1 of the New York Times, > Saturday, 8/5/89. (copyright 1989 New York Times) > > Harrassing Calls Show Decline When Phones Identify Callers > by Calvin Sims > > The number of obscene or harassing telephone calls has fallen sharply > in the first test of a system that allows people to see the number of the > phone the call was dialed on before they answer. I have no doubt that this is true, but this is not the only way the phone company can deal with problem calls. They've had those "black boxes" for years, enabling them to keep a line open in order to trace a call. Over ten years ago, a friend of my mother's was getting nuisance calls in the middle of the night. After a number of occurrences, the phone company gave her one of these devices, and the next time there was a call, they traced it, and the police ended up knocking on the guy's door not too much later. I guess he was pretty surprised. However, of course it turned out to be an ex-lover, so my guess is that in most cases, an educated guess would lead you to the culprit. Also, someone once told me that the phone company had given them the following strategy for nuisance calls. Tap the receiver so it sounds like a couple of clicks, then say "Operator, this is the call I want you to trace." I think this would probably be enough to scare off the "casual" prankster. There was a neat story here maybe five or six years ago. Apparently the phones at the White House are (or at least were) constantly equipped with tracing devices, so that any threatening calls can be traced immediately. Seems this local high school student was showing off or something, called the White House from a pay phone at the Cohoes High School, and made some kind of vague threat. Well, the call was traced immediately to that pay phone, the Secret Service called their office in Albany, who contacted the Sheriff's Office. They dashed over to the school, asked a few people if they'd seen anybody using the pay phone, and confronted the offending student--all within 45 minutes! You can imagine, that student was pretty impressed with the response. -- "ANGRY WOMEN BEAT UP SHOE SALESMAN Dave Fiske (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) WHO POSED AS GYNECOLOGIST" Home: David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com Headline from Weekly World News CIS: 75415,163 GEnie: davef