🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <32a4df32.1998257@news.inil.com>, adams@inil.com wrote:

> sward@clark.net (David Sward) wrote:
> 
> >In article <32a194fe.5295808@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
> >J.A. Hitchcock <latakia@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >>We were getting these calls at almost the same time every night for
> >>about a month, then they became random.  We'd pick up, say "Hello?"
> >>several times.  You could hear someone breathing, but there'd be no
> >>answer and after a long while, they'd hang up.  That's when we ordered
> >>Return Call.  We kind of freaked, thinking someone was casing our
> >>house, but the calls have stopped all of a sudden.
> >>
> >>One person said it was telemarketers and another said it was Bell
> >>Atlantic trying to drum up more business (ha ha). 
> >>
> >>Anyone else get these?
> >
> >We were getting those and calls where after you pick up the line you
> >hear some sort of "clicking" or "switching" noise, but nothing else.
> >All of those calls showed up as "UNAVAILABLE".  I called Bell Atlantic
> >but the person I spoke to was most unhelpful ("Did you get the number
> >from your caller ID box?" "No, it is listed as UNAVAILABLE." "We can't
> >help you." "Is there anything you or I can do about this?" "No.")
> 
> If you claim harassment, they *CAN* do something about it.  In fact, they
> have to, if you make a police report.  And just because CLID doesn't show
> up, that doesn't mean that the ANI isn't available or that they can't trace
> it.
> 
> If you are willing to call the police, they have to take action...

Sad to say, that's not true.  Nynex around Boston, for example, is
completely uncooperative even with a police complaint in hand.  It
took over a dozen phone calls and three days to get a trap put on
the line, every person at the Call Annoyance Bureau was unbelievably
hostile and rude, and they were still too incompetent to get any
information on the calls.

The police said that my best bet was to sue Nynex.  The Public Utilities
Commission said they have no authority over the Call Annoyance Bureau.
The Nynex President's Office was unable to get the Call Annoyance Bureau
to do their jobs, or even simply be civil.  The Attorney General's Office
said they can't do anything about Nynex.

Furthermore, Nynex claims to have an under 20% success rate at tracing
calls.

What we need is a reliable system for tracing calls.  I'm happy to have
the phone company and the police be the only ones with access to the
info, though I don't know why I shouldn't have the ability to know who's
calling me.  It's absurd that it's so easy to block a call from being
traced.

For privacy concerns when calling an abuse hotline etc., put in an "id
block" that only works to registered hotline numbers.  So you can
block your calls from being identified if you're calling a hotline
number, but not to anyone else.  The code you dial to block your number
can give you a brief recording after you've dialed the number you're
calling to tell you whether or not the blocking is going to work, so
you can hang up if the blocking isn't going to work.

Just my opinion as someone who received a death threat, and was then
put through far more hell by Nynex as a result.