they have a prgram that listens for certain word like "bomb" "president" and so on thats all i know

For a while, we kept getting phone calls and then the person or people hung up after we said hello. This went on for along time. it happened for about 3 months. It still happens once in while but not like it was. We have caller ID and the caller was unknown. Was this a possiable tapping event on our phone? Has anyone experienced this? By the way this happened before the law was passed to to allow us to block calls.

What do you all think?

You can buy things which will detect bugs on the phone...

They'll detect ones that are physically in the phone piece, and also ones which are on your line.
If i recall, www.ccrane.com had them. I don't have any experience, but I can offer that.

I do not condone the following, but figured I could throw it in...

I did used to do a fair amount of toying with the phone system a ways back. I'm not sure if your yard has a big metal post in it, usually property of whatever baby Bell you've got in your area. Pry it open - you can do the job with a screwdriver and a hammer, or even your barehands. Don't mess up the post too much, though, or else you won't be able to get the cover back on.

Inside of the post are rows of phone lines, they go to your house and your neighbor's houses.

There are three compontants to each phone number.
(xxx) yyy - zzzz.
(xxx) is an area code which is a huge trunk line, it designates the phone system to the general direction of the phone. IE, 212 is NYC.
yyy is a more localised trunk line. 333 designates a group of phone lines in a certain area in the xxx area code.
the last four digits, zzzz, designate your specific phone line.
You'll have a trunk line going into the post, and then each zzzz or individual line going into your neighbor's houses. The "zzzz" are usually randomly assigned, so you won't be like..1234 and your neighbor 1235, and the next 1236.

EDIT:
You can see if there is a physical bug included in your trunk or house line.
I can definitely tell you that cell phone are quite easy to tap, and if you're using a portable phone, those are easy, too.

I can fondly recall how I modified a KB Toys walky-talky set I'd gotten for probably my 10 or 12th birthday. I could listen to phone conversations on it, it operated on the same frequency. I don't recall if it interfered with the phone line itself, too.

Also -
A repetitious clicking (like a metronome) in the background. Or a slight beep. They can both be indicative of your phone being bugged.
Unscrew your phone, too, and ground yourself (touch something metal). See if you find anything squirrly in the mouthpiece, which is often the place of physical taps or bugs.
A faint echo (on cell phones, this is common and not necessarily a sign of a bug) on the line, especially when between two grounded phones (that is, not cell or portable phones) is also something to keep your eye..er...ear...out for.

Hope this helps in some way, shape or form.

[edit on 15-6-2004 by mauskov]

phone tapping..it depends..two main reasons.

first the obvious one, to find out who your phoning and what your saying.
second one is to do it in such a way as so you get suspicious, get paranoid. ie do it so u hear clicks on the line etc..or even another receiver being put down while you busy talking with someone..this would be to FREAK you out..SCARE you..instill F E A R.

Extra static on the line or hearing clicks when you pick up to dial are an indicator..but im sure by now there must be technology that can trace calls silently with no one having ANY idea.

Originally posted by thequietshaodw
they have a prgram that listens for certain word like "bomb" "president" and so on thats all i know

I've also heard that before. I've forgotten how many "alert" words/phrases that would supposedly start taping random conversations. Funny thing.... ever since they came looking for that one guy, he hasn't been back. Strange.....

I am not to sure of the clicking and beeping noises, but I can teel you for sure that they can get into your phone line without anyone ever knowing.

All that they have to use is a simple piece of test equipment that can channelize T 1's and put it into a monitoring jack for non-intrusive testing. I am sure that they have much easier ways to perform this procedure with the Digital switches in operations today.

Non intrusive testing puts something called impedance on the patch panel through the circuits. Since most of the time they would probably monitor at the higher level bandwidths from a central office. I really do not see how a test equipment at the home could tell if someone was on the line, if they were channelizing a higher level circuit.

Originally posted by sheatc
I am not to sure of the clicking and beeping noises, but I can teel you for sure that they can get into your phone line without anyone ever knowing.

All that they have to use is a simple piece of test equipment that can channelize T 1's and put it into a monitoring jack for non-intrusive testing. I am sure that they have much easier ways to perform this procedure with the Digital switches in operations today.

Non intrusive testing puts something called impedance on the patch panel through the circuits. Since most of the time they would probably monitor at the higher level bandwidths from a central office. I really do not see how a test equipment at the home could tell if someone was on the line, if they were channelizing a higher level circuit.

wow
That's pretty interesting. I've heard that they don't need any type of gimmic for cell phones. Apparently cell phones are open game. I don't quite understand why since they are still considered one's personal property.

cheshire cat:

from what you described i'd guess what's going on is your new neighbors were using the place as some kinda drug house, probably a meth lab if they were able to get out of there so quickly.

where i grew up a lot of suburban houses would get bought and then used for drug production -- sometimes a big methamphetamine lab, sometimes a big hydroponic garden for growing marijuana -- with the idea being nobody suspects their new neighbors. my grandparents, for example, had new neighbors doing the exact same thing your new neighbors sounded like what they were doing -- getting packages at odd hours, never talking with anyone, taking the trash out RIGHT BEFORE the garbage truck came, etc. -- and my grandma was telling me that there was always a van parked in a nearby alley watching them. my grandma assumed the people were in the witness protection program or something, but using the house as a drug laboratory sounded more likely to me then and still does now.

if i had to guess that's what i'd say was going on in your neighborhood; still sucks that your phone might've been tapped, though.

About three days ago, I could again hear another conversation going on the line before the person I called answered. What is that all about? Also, a family member told me that where he lives, he had some news, very personal, that he is just now sharing with friends and family. So far, everyone he and another person have told, they have been met with this response..."thats good, but we already knew." What does THAT mean? I said, so you're bugged huh? He's like, I dont know, its the weirdest thing. And so the saga continues.....(a never ending invasion of privacy no matter where we go.) People are even walking up to him on the street...i mean its a small town but come on here.......

We have a little device on our phone that lets us know if the line is being tapped into at our end. I bought it at the Spy Shop in Madison Alabama. It was 35$ or so 5 years ago. It shows green when you are on the phone and red if the line gets tapped at your end (not the other persons end).

I have seen the devices in catelogs, but I don't remember which one. You could call The Spy Shop in Madison and ask about it.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
We have a little device on our phone that lets us know if the line is being tapped into at our end. I bought it at the Spy Shop in Madison Alabama. It was 35$ or so 5 years ago. It shows green when you are on the phone and red if the line gets tapped at your end (not the other persons end).

I have seen the devices in catelogs, but I don't remember which one. You could call The Spy Shop in Madison and ask about it.

Thanks for the input. I'll keep that in mind. Hopefully, I won't have to worry about this problem again.

Jesus! I will tell it one time

In modern western countries phone systems have been developed to a point where it is NOT needed to use any physical or even noticeable tap.

It's not the good old phone systems that look like noodle salad, it's absolute high-tech hardware now. Comparable to routers and maintained the same way.

It's quite easy to mirror incoming and outgoing phone calls for a specific line but, as somebody already mentioned, tapping just one number and not a whole line is still to be done "on-site". Depending on the line you have to tap a lot of phones to filter out what's for your desire.
As you can imagine, computerized tapping leaves no trace in the signal or even hearable for anybody.
When it comes to a single-tap, this may differ but Patriot Act and their European equivalents partly allowed to use those extended resources.

Shoo:
I comprehend all that you have said, but don't you think it could be remotely possible, especially considering the fact that I had the phone company come out here several time and mess with the line could lead to some indication that there was a tap?
The service persons weren't technological geniuses, especially when all they would say is, "Well, I can't figure out what's wrong. How 'bout we just put another line out here."
I'm sure you could understand my dilemma.

nice to know those guys are everywhere the same. Completely incompetent

I can understand your dilemma

If your phone is tapped you usually hear odd noises or clicking, the detection and recording by the phone tapper. Sometimes it is impossible to tell though...

I used to work for BT, the UK telecommunications company, and I'd say that if you're getting more than the normal clicks on the line it's probable that a Private Spook has put a clumsy tap on your line. If a Government department was operating an official tap, they would not give it away with obvious noise down the line.

zero lift

I actually found a really odd way to find if someone was tappin the line at my end.

I won a phone back in middle school as a prize for selling enough fundraisers. Ironic enough, this is the only phone of mine that has lasted over 2 years. All the others tweek out and break(i dont think that has to do with the tapping though).

Anyways, the phone makes a little chirp every time someone picks up(or sets down) the line. Usually it chirps to warn me my parents have picked up the phone(but there is a large click for that, so its not too hard to tell anyways) but sometimes when no one else is home, after i hang up, within a sec or two, the phone chirps.

Another weird thing about one of the other phones in my house. It's microphone doesnt work when another person is on the line. However the speaker works. For example, a friend of mine calls, and someone else in the house picks up. they shout that its for me, and i pick up the "weird phone". I can hear my friend(and my family member) but neither of them can hear me when i say anything. Until the family member hangs up. then my friend can hear everything just fine.

So that would be a way to tap without any noise, and the phone in my room is a way to tell if you are being tapped.

Werid huh?

---pineapple

As you're not doing anything illegal and have nothing to hide this is the route you should follow.
Apply to the FBI/CIA/NSA or whoever you think may be tapping your line, including your service provider and ask for all information thay have on you, quoting the freedom of information act. I have seen this done before with the FBI and they either have to give you the information they have on you or give a reason why they can't, usually National Security or some other bogus claim. Either way you'll be able to find out once and for all exactly who is showing an interest in you and maybe why.

PD

When I had that problem it was beacuse I'd over loaded my line with too many REN's, Phones/Faxes/Modems. Some phones use upto 3 REN's, leaving only 1 REN before your line overloads resulting in a loss of power. This would explain why the mic on your phone stops working. Phones do weird things when the line has a low voltage due to REN's sapping at the line.
Also, your phone beeping when someone picks up or uses another phone, I also had that and that was due to the change of voltage in the line. Your phone probably thinks that the voltage has changed because someone is calling your number, so for just a split second it will beep.