How do you tell if your phone is tapped?

[FreedomDeb]

Hi! Came across this site doing a search on phone tapping. I am trying to find out how to tell if my phone is tapped without having to use special equipment to do so. I have good reason to believe this is a possibility, thus the question here.

Whenever my phone rings, before it actually rings, it does a very slight, momentary partial ring. The phone I used to have did a momentary "whirring" type sound prior to ringing. Whenever I go to dial my phone, as soon as I turn it on (a tone cordless), it sounds as if it is doing a one second pulse connection prior to dial tone. Does anyone know what this is? And if it is a wiretap, how do i get rid of it?

Any help you can give would be appreciated. Thanks!

[maxwell]

Dude, you ain't even logged on.

[maxwell]

If you wish to speak to a Libertarian Party representative, you may press zero now."

[snortle]

Quick VA, get Tommy Boy over here to defend his territory...

[VA Advogado]

If you wish to speak to a Libertarian Party representative, you may press zero now."

I thought that was the office number for Ron Paul. ZERO

[maxwell]

Oh Gawd you've done it now... Awright you slap him around a bit, I'm going to go watch Law and Order...

[Joe Hadenuf]

I am trying to find out how to tell if my phone is tapped without having to use special equipment to do so.

Wisper into the phone that your almost done with the car bomb and that you plan on setting it off tonight. Then just sit back and wait. If nothing happens, you will know your phone is not tapped.

[VA Advogado]

Quick VA, get Tommy Boy over here to defend his territory...

LOL Max, he's taken too many kicks in the azz this weekend. I think he's still healing like a wounded dog.

[Cvengr]

Applejack,...Applejack

Corn Whiskey is risky.

I repeat,..Corn Whiskey is risky.

Cryptome.org used to have some interesting FAQs regarding the topics. ;^)

[FreedominJesusChrist]

If you lived closer to Milwaukee, I could get my Justice and Public Policy Professor to perhaps help you. He is retired FBI, etc., and knows all about this stuff. Actually, he specialized in Italian-American Organized Crime, so I take it he has wiretapped his share of homes. :-) If you want, I can ask him this question for you?

[jlogajan]

What you describe I would call "pre-ring." You have to understand that at the phone company, they have a limited amount of equipment that they share across many lines. In this case they have what is called a ring generator -- a source of high voltage AC at about 20 cycles per second. They switch it in to your circuit to make it ring. They switch it out again to make it stop ringing. You get that cadence, ring, silence, ring, silence, etc. That is the ring generator being switched in and out.

So the only way to get "pre-ring" is for the switcher to give you a shorter than usual burst of ring current. So it is something screwy with their generating equipment at the central office.

Other than the fact that you find it annoying, there is really nothing terribly wrong with it, since all following rings after the first are of the normal burst length.

Nothing to be done about it really. You could complain about pre-ring to the phone company. They might switch out the bad equipment. Then again, they might not, since it isn't a service affecting disorder.

[eno_]

It's more likely the phone. Electronic ringers, especially those on cordless phones, which need their own power supply for the radio, are not actually powered by the ring signal (in contrast with old phones where the clapper that strikes the bell is actually moved by electric power from the telephone central office). They look for higher voltage and ring. So if some transient on the line occurs when the switch selects that line for ringing (something that wouild not have enough power behind it to move a mechanical ringer), it might cause an electronic ringer to "cheep."

Get a real old analog phone - like a dial phone - and see if that "pre ring" occurs on that phone. If it does not, then it is your cheap cordless phone that cannot tell the difference between real ring and a brief pulse of noise.

Why are electronic phones made so sensitive? Some PBXs cannot ring a real, no chips, analog phone - they lack the power in the ring circuit. It provides the standard voltage, but it cannot move enough current to actually provide the power to move a clapper.

[r-t-f-m]

Ah, but how 'bout the all-time classic for driving someone mad... Disney's "It's a small world"

[brat]

"So, for just $599, I’m fully protected and going in style with my anti-psychotronic armor suit."...You devil! Now we'll all want one! LOL

[FreedomDeb]

For those of you who took my wire tapping question seriously, I truly am grateful and appreciate the insight you've given. For those of you who told me to wrap myself in tinfoil, and other such paranoid slights, glad you had a good laugh from the topic. At least it made your Easter day right? Again, for those with the insightful and helpful information, I am very appreciative and a few bad apple remarks won't keep from here. Being a single mother for 13 years with two grown children, I've gotten much thicker skin that that. Deb

[timestax]

Ah, but how 'bout the all-time classic for driving someone mad... Disney's "It's a small world" 133 posted on 3/31/02 11:10 PM Pacific by r-t-f-m [ YIKES. I could NOT stand to listen to it One time!

[knews_hound]

Hi Deb, I work in the Telcom field and can tell you without reservation, if it were tapped, you would NEVER know.

Government agencies do not "Tap" phones in the way you think. If a Govermnet agency is indeed tapping your calls, it is being done at the Telephone Companies Central Office and in fact, you would never know.

All that being said however, if an individual is interested in you, equipment will have to have been installed on the wiring of your home, or possibly, on the pole near you.

In any event, many cheesy systems will in fact broadcast on the FM Radio band. One easy way to find out if this is the case is to make a call to CO test tone by dialing XXX-0020 (where XXX is your prefix)or XXX-0022 (usually, it changes on many systems) and sweeping across the FM radio spectrum with a radio listening for the tone. Freepmail me if you need more info.

knews hound

[timestax]

BUMP

[CyberCowboy777]

Welcome!

[Gore_ War_ Vet]

Bingo