41 replies to this topic

[bracket]

How can I tell if my phone is tapped?
I have several symptoms:
Weird clicking and hissing on the line I don't normally hear (as well as static)
Static and hissing lots when I first pick up the cordless phone (somebody using a modified ham radio?)
I've been doing lots more illegal stuff than normal....
I hope this is the right section but this is phone related.
Is there a number I can call?
Can the phone company check my lines?
Will they report FBI taps?

[natas]

whoa this post is a mouthful.

there is no number you can call to test if your line is tapped. the phone company can check your line if you want, but what if they are the ones tapping it? dont expect an honest answer in that case.

if your using a 900mhz cordless phone its easy to listen in on but it wouldnt interfere with your conversation or anything like that.

i guess the first thing you should do is go check out your network interface device on the outside of your house and see if there is anything weird hooked up there. check all your jacks and internal wiring i guess.

[Abstruse]

The police or federal agencies can put a tap on your line at the office now. That's what a lot of the Homeland Security legislation was about, forcing phone companies to allow taps more easily.

However, if the problem's on a cordless phone, it could be something as simple as your neighbor just got a wireless router and it's interfering with your signal. It could also be a tree limb fell onto a line somewhere near you, or an animal crawled into the junction box in your area and died. There's lots of rational non-paranoid explanations.

Just remember that it's universally not a good idea to talk about illegal things on any phone line. Ever watch The Sopranos? Notice how they never talk openly except on pay phones? Ever notice how drug deals never say exactly what they doing? "You got the stuff?" "Yeah." That's because a good lawyer can throw out vague or slang names by simply saying "You can't prove the 'stuff' they were talking about was drugs."

Oh, another way to keep yourself out of jail is just don't do illegal things. And especially don't talk about doing illegal things on a public forum like this. It's like hanging a bright neon sign out saying "Illegal terrorist hacker is doing things HERE! Come, investigate me!"

The Abstruse One

[counterspell]

If the telco was tapping it, you wouldn't get any weird noises.

[natas]

If the telco was tapping it, you wouldn't get any weird noises.

that is what you would think anyways. decoders tap was awful and was so obvious.

[counterspell]

True. It depends on you telco's work ethic I guess. But the point is telcos can potentially do near-silent taps, because they have complete control.

[bracket]

Well, i have a 900mhz phone but you can barely hear it on the driveway. It's not that these things are against any law, it's just that I might get arrested for them anyway (like bernie S.). As you may know I release the contingency philes, which could be used as rationale for arresting me, the most recent one has secret service info; that's good enough for a house raid. I never mention *specific* things I always refer to "the file" etc. Is there anything I can do to see if people are monitoring my 900mhz frequency? Does anything else normal use this frequency? Couldn't they just tap it at the switchboard or whatever through a computer so it would be silent?

[DrLZRDMN]

Not that you should trust me but here are my thoughts:
*Perhaps if you don't say anything suspicius over the phone they will leave you alone.
*You could try a crypto set up
*Isn't there a box which is supposed to zap bug?
*Consider no using the wireless.
just my two cents

[spoekalb]

Static and hissing on a cordless phone? NEVER!!! IT MUST BE A TAP!

Seriously though, go to your network interface and disconnect the inside wiring. Plug in a Western Electric 2500 and see if there is any static. If there is still static, sometimes it is because it rained recently and the aerial wire plant gets wet and doesn't work as well as a dry plant.

[teabag]

Is there anything I can do to see if people are monitoring my 900mhz frequency? Does anything else normal use this frequency?

you won't be able to tell if someone is monitoring. your signal travels much farther than you get reception with your phone and someone with the right antenna can be around the block.
interference is everywhere, i've picked up the cdrom drive spinning on my laptop before. the most interesting situation i've encountered was when i was using a 900mhz next to my guitar amp, when i would get close to it i could here one of my neighbours conversations through the amp.

[10nix]

wire taps are done outside of normal telco proceedure, and are done at the junction box. law enforcement have at there disposal one or two vans per population base with telco markings that they send to the boxses to put the tap on the line. the law enforcement technicians put the tap on the line, and it continuously broadcasts on a particular frequency that is recieved by the recording equipment. the taps are usually about 6" long, 3.5 inches wide, and up to an inch thick.they are typically stuck to the door of the box with enough wiring to accomodate the door opening, though they have been known to be placed on the board itself, making it a read pain to get to lines underneath it. They come in grey and black, and telco employees are instructed to ignore things that look like it. The telco will not tap your phone; all they will do is ignore the law enforcement hardware.
<edited for spelling>

Edited by 10nix, 21 April 2005 - 12:09 AM.

[natas]

i dont want to sound like a dick but that is the worst post ever. where did you get that info? in this day and age everything is done with software on the switch. they dont go hooking stuff up to junction boxes or even the frame anymore. no more Hiekelman Labs (spelling prolly isnt even close) pen regs or anything. for more info look up CALEA.

[spoekalb]

wire taps are done outside of normal telco proceedure, and are done at the junction box.  law enforcement have at there disposal one or two vans per population base with telco markings that they send to the boxses to put the tap on the line.  the law enforcement technicians put the tap on the line, and it continuously broadcasts on a particular frequency that is recieved by the recording equipment. the taps are usually about 6" long, 3.5 inches wide, and up to an inch thick.they are typically stuck to the door of the box with enough wiring to accomodate the door opening, though they have been known to be placed on the board itself, making it a read pain to get to lines underneath it.  They come in grey and black, and telco employees are instructed to ignore things that look like it.  The telco will not tap your phone; all they will do is ignore the law enforcement hardware.
<edited for spelling>

i dont want to sound like a dick but that is the worst post ever. where did you get that info? in this day and age everything is done with software on the switch. they dont go hooking stuff up to junction boxes or even the frame anymore. no more Hiekelman Labs (spelling prolly isnt even close) pen regs or anything. for more info look up CALEA.

Haha... Yeah what a great story. We all know how taps really work nowadays though. You see first a police officer has to summon the switch fairy at the central office. The switch fairy controls all the monitoring of the switch and makes sure your call goes through. When the call doesn't go through she tells you what happened on your line. Anyway the police officer tells the fairy to listen on your line for illegal activity. When she hears people talking about illegal things, she quick writes it all down with a magical fairy pen. Why magical you ask? Well, fairys can tap more than one line at once so they need a pen that can write two conversations at one time! When the call is over the fairy quick mails the sheet of paper to the police officer. New versions of Switch Fairy can fax but this technology is still young. Also at tandem offices they can have up to 9 switch fairys at any given moment so make sure to keep your illegal conversations out of the tandem switches! They are really good at hearing illegal activity!

[greyarea]

Its all digitaly done.They have MVP (Moble Voice Processors)type units that record everything from any key words and/or at their disposal any number.Kinda like a VOicemail system like I said like a MVP.Your not going to hear anything different on your line these days :/Peace
happy 4:20

[spoekalb]

Its all digitaly done.They have MVP (Moble Voice Processors)type units that record everything from any key words and/or at their disposal any number.Kinda like a VOicemail system like I said like a MVP.Your not going to hear anything different on your line these days :/Peace
happy 4:20

I don't think they can listen for keywords. It would be so difficult to set that up.
I have a feeling they just setup a tap and record _all_ calls to and from a certian number.
Also it really sounds to me like this guy is just having cordless telephone interference problems. Be a man and use a real telephone.

Edit:

there are only an average of 1500 court-ordered phone taps each year in the U.S.

From: here.

Edited by BlakeOPS, 21 April 2005 - 01:04 AM.

[greyarea]

Its all digitaly done.They have MVP (Moble Voice Processors)type units that record everything from any key words and/or at their disposal any number.Kinda like a VOicemail system like I said like a MVP.Your not going to hear anything different on your line these days :/Peace
happy 4:20

I don't think they can listen for keywords. It would be so difficult to set that up.
I have a feeling they just setup a tap and record _all_ calls to and from a certian number.
Also it really sounds to me like this guy is just having cordless telephone interference problems. Be a man and use a real telephone.

Edit:

there are only an average of 1500 court-ordered phone taps each year in the U.S.

From: here.

Yo what year is it?umm..2005,Go talk to some FBI officials about it.

[spoekalb]

Well, we are both guilty of speculation.

I'm reading through this right now:
http://commdocs.hous.../hju61763_0.HTM

This looks good too:
http://www.epic.org/...order_04_02.pdf

Post quotes from these files if you find something! I'll read the rest of these tomorrow.

Edited by BlakeOPS, 21 April 2005 - 01:33 AM.

[lucky225]

yea blakeops, haven't you heard of echelon you noob? it's in EVERY Central office, this way if you divert through 80 PBX's, the original Central Office where the call was placed from picked up the keyword and knows exactly what line placed the call.

[natas]

whoa wtf thats gnarly. i havent ever heard of Echelon.

[Abstruse]

Don't forget the illegal taps. What some agencies do (and firmly deny that they do it) when they can't get a warrent because of lack of evidence is they put the tap on anyway. Then, using that tap, they get info that gets them other evidence which they use to get the warrent to make the tap legal. After that, anything they record on the phone is admissible in court.

The Abstruse One