How can you tell if your phone is tapped?

Watch plenty of X-files! Well if your phone was tapped by the feds you wouldn't know it. There is no way to tell. But if mysterious agents appear at your front door not long after the phone call, then it was probably tapped and you work for the wrong person lol.

Anyone who has a monitered home security system,
will have their phone land-line 'tapped', about once
every 3 weeks,(in my case). Your security co' will
send a "ping", to check your phone line is o.k.
It's an electronic echo type deal.
In Oz 95% of land lines are ancient.
S.

I'm just waiting for the day the Men in Black show up at my front door...

A lot of the times, agents will also question you about your neighbors, if your neighbor is applying for a Security Clearance.

I guess a tapped phone is better than no phone at all. Some idiot went and accidently cut out my voice service. Apparently it's only mine. The neighbor's phone works but she said she saw someone working just down the street. Now the phone company has to come out to fix the problem. uggh
At least my dsl still works.

If you don't know if the line is tapped ,then always assume that it is.

I think that someone is listening in on my phone and it all started after I joined ATS.

I know that everyone gets the automated telemarketing calls, where you have to say hello 3 times, before someone real picks up the line.

Well, I get way too many, and I'd say 2-3 times a day,I get those calls, phone rings, I answer it and I say hello 3 times and no one picks up, I can sometimes hear, electronic noises in the background, sometimes a little static, I always hand up right away after hearing that.

For a while, after the 3rd hello, I would yell into the phone to leave me alone and stuff like that !

I don't believe they would be applying for Security Clearance, if you catch my drift.
They are not native born Americans, and as I've said before, weird (c) is always going on.
Thanks for the info though

What's applying for a security clearance? And this one time, my phone picked up on someone else's phone while me and my friend were talking. We were listening to their conversation and our line had a lot of static. The static ended when we heard other people talking.

No problem, anytime. Keep me updated on any more weird stuff that happens, I'm interested in hearing about what else is occuring.

A Security Clearance is when someone is in a job, most likely government related, such as the C.I.A, or the F.B.I, and they will end up working with Top Secret information for example. They will thus need a Security Clearance at the level of Top Secret to work there. So basically, A Top Secret Security Clearance, Clears an individual to work with Top Secret information. Hope I explained it well enough, if not, just let me know.

Just an update for the curious. I'm not sure if they just became disinterested or security has called them elsewhere, but I don't "believe" that my phone is tapped anymore. But I could be wrong.

According to FCC rules all phone companies must have to have a way to monitor phone calls. This is usually done at the phone company where they toss a switch and poof all your calls are recorded real time. The FCC is also currently trying to expand this law to include internet traffic and require ISP companies to do install the same type of monitoring system, as well as trying to expand it to voice over IP.

Bottom line, you would never know. The only people these days who tap your phone at the actual phone or in house jack are people who are doing it illegally.

Johnsmith,
From my previous posts on this topic, here is it summed up. Feds came to my house asking questions. My phone starts acting quite odd. I buy 2 brand new expensive phones. I have the phone company out here several times. They even try installing a "new line". I still have the problem until recently. Odd.... yes.
I seriously doubt that the government believes it has to obey the rules that "they" set forth for the "commoners" to follow. But then again, that's just a thought.

If a law-enforcement agency is tapping your phone, it would be at the switch in your local CO and totally un-detectable. They don't have to go to your home or even your street.

Here is some more information on how law-enforcement agencies perform wiretaps from Robert X. Cringely.

i get a catalog in the mail every few months, johnson-smith, things you never knew exsisted and other stuff you can't possibly live without. well, they have this tap detector in it, dunno if it works though.

Ta p Detector

[edit on 6/12/2004 by Sandro]

I heard somewhere that if your phone was tapped, it makes clicks in the background while your talking. My phone clicks really bad all the time, though, so Im not sure if that theory is incorrect, or my phone is tapped. Probably the latter.

face it, echelon even knows what color our poop is just by the sound it makes!

the sound goes right through the walls and into the receiver hahahhaha

Elevatedone, we get those same calls, at least 6 a day. But we can trace them, and so far its been MCI 99 percent of the time, its also a marketing firm, and its also home security systems. It is definately internet related, but we got them long before i joined this board. And you CAN hear noises like somebodies there before the tape comes on, and i scream at them too. Now, about phone tapping, I stopped using the phone for anything but the most mundane conversations for the most part about 13 years ago when I realized someone was using my voice on their CD. Dont panic and think Im schizo, it was a very unwell known band, they got mad at me because I questioned a friend of theirs about something, so the next thing I know, my voice is being spliced in as a sample on their CD's, taken off an answering machine. It was fascinating...but I started to panic when I realized that they had recorded one of the conversations on one of the songs IN MY HOME. I am of the opinion, that my phone was tapped unprofessionally for at least 8 or 9 years. I am also of the opinion that my home (or the home I was living in) was bugged for a few months. NOT BY THE GOVERNMENT, but by the people in that band. Can I prove it, no...but I KNOW that it was done.I have no idea what all they got...but talk about feeling violated. We have some recordings (or used to) of what some people would say when we picked up the phone. We got annoyance calls for YEARS. ANYWAYS, to make a long story short, I felt violated using the phone years ago, realized the capabilities there, and gave up using it for anything but surface stuff. You have to be crafty this day and age and find other ways to communicate, or you can just shut down and not communicate your true intentions to anyone. But my past experiences are the reasons i hang out at conspiracy boards, i am FULLY aware of the devious nature of people these days, and how they can be helped along electronically. And woe be unto you if the wrong people get mad at you. (the sado masochistic, narcissistic types) And, for the most part, no one ever believes you so the truth is stranger than fiction. As for my current phone line, it never stops beeping, there is a continuous sound on the line, i have heard neighbors conversations on the line, etc. Someone is CONSTANTLY messing with this line. Do you think I care...i stopped caring years ago.

it really depends on the system they are using and how they listen to the line. The only way to have real security on a line is to use something like this.

Click Here

[edit on 13-6-2004 by J0HNSmith]