When a person is harassed by phone calls it can be more than a nuisance -- it could be illegal. The unwanted calls often disturbs the peace of mind of a phone user sand even they can be susceptible to physical harm or bodily injury from the caller's activities. So the calls can be extremely frightening to anybody and the person may feel intimidated. Thus, in order to stop harassing phone calls, it is so necessary that one should control such phone harassment in a right manner and if required must handle them with iron fist.
In United States, a harassing phone call can be defined as "a call where the caller uses threatening or obscene language, calls and hangs up repeatedly, remains silent when the call is answered, breaths heavily or plays music or a message from the other end. Such calls are illegal in the United States and one can take relevant action against such unsolicited callers. For the safeguarding and for the protection of the consumer there are laws which ensure that the phone consumer is protected from unwanted callers and unsolicited phone calls. The Telephone harassment laws can check these crimes and penalize the offenders according to the laws.
An unwelcome call does not constitute phone harassment and so the person cannot lodge a complaint on this ground. If a caller frequently harasses a person then that call is a harassment call. There are many phone harassment laws and a person can seek redress under them. The moment a person gets such a harassing call it is sensible to keep a call log of the time and the date of the caller. The person should also record the gender of the caller and a description of the caller's voice. The exact words of what the caller says should be recorded and it would also be helpful to make an assumption of how old the caller is for the purpose of investigation.
While making a note of the caller's voice, the person should also listen and observe whether the caller has any speech impediments or not. Moreover the tone and the accent of the caller's voice should also be noted and along with that it must also try to identify any background noise. Recording or identifying the caller's voice is important but one should also note down the phone number on the ID when it is being displayed on the screen. This would help you to provide numerous conveniences for background or investigation checks.
Anyone interested in stopping harassing phone calls would be well advised to take precautions. Recording the phone call is the best form of evidence. Short of a recording, a detailed account of the call is also admissible as evidence. If the caller used threatening language or made bodily threats to you or your family you can immediately call the FBI and the FTC -- in that order.
Steps to Stop Harassing Phone Calls
The local phone companies have many phone protection policies to prevent their consumers from phone call harassment. These companies recommend various steps by which phone harassment could be stopped. So here few steps that you can check out and can apply as per your suitability. You can contact the company's customer service department and report the incident. If they refuse to act upon your complaint, you can seek legal redress through a civil suit.
For more information on the local phone company's phone protection policy, one can call the company to find out the details of phone protection and privacy policies that are offered by the company. This information will help the person in dealing with phone harassment matters when they happen.
If a person is receiving a serious phone harassment call in which the caller is using obscene and threatening language, he or she must file a formal complaint with the police along with a detailed description of the caller's voice and the nature of the call made on the particular date and time. Therefore, there is no reason to panic and the law enforcement authorities conduct background searches to trace the culprit.
At Reverse Phone Check services, we are committed to helping you stop harassing phone calls as quickly and effectively as possible. If a person wants to stop harassing calls without going to the local phone company or the police then he should simply not engage himself in any kind of conversation with the caller and must hang up. This strategy is called the pressure valve strategy and it helps to capture unwanted callers. As per the policy the user retains the old telephone number and the number will leave a "not available" message so that the caller can be identified. The phone caller will think that he is calling the old number and hence falls into a trap. This can serve as vital evidence, however; the person should make sure that the new number is unlisted and unpublished.
Thus it is important the number should only be given to trusted friends and known persons. If the caller is a stubborn one and resorts to stalking the person it is recommended that the victim should change his phone number. There are other precautions that can be taken by the person and they include not disclosing any kind of personal information to an unknown person. If any caller asks the person what number he has dialed then the person should not disclose his number instead he should ask the person what number he wants to dial. This is a precaution that one can take against potential robbers who may have called up to check whether the house is empty or not. Most phone harassment callers call people to seek attention and very often the silent treatment policy works. If the silent treatment does not work then the person should attach a voice mail warning the caller that the phone number has a trap that has been set by the local phone company and hence the said call can be traced and reported to the law enforcement authorities if desired.