Seriously---How do I know if my phone is being tapped?

[dogfacedboy]

I have real reasons to believe my phone may be tapped. How can I tell for sure?

[Lilith Velkor]

1. You can't. n/t

[noalito]

2. why u think this?

What makes u think its tapped?

[dogfacedboy]

13. I've got my reasons. n/t

[noalito]

14. oh come on

just tell us. i want to know what i should be watching for...

[dogfacedboy]

32. Unusual sounds on the line. n/t

[VelmaD]

3. In the middle of a conversation...

slip in a "Hi Agent Mike"...and see if he accidentally answers. That would be a dead giveaway. :-)

[boston bean]

4. call a PI and he has equipment that can tell if your phone is tapped. nt

[htuttle]

6. He'd only be able to tell if it had been tapped by another PI...

...circa 1950.

The methods they use to tap phones nowdays are not detectable with old-fashioned line analysis tools.

[bowens43]

9. Maybe in the old days , but not anymore.

It's not quite as easy to tell as it was back in the days of analog telecommunications.

[H2O Man]

38. That is correct.

Many people mistakenly believe that things are like they were in the old day, when an undercover agent disguised as a telephone repair man climbed a pole and installed a "bug." It's not.

It is possible now for almost any police agency with a small budget to access the equipment needed to focus in on people's phones, without bugs or clips (and you will NOT hear the old "clicks"). In fact, other "private" forces are able to.

Welcome to the high-tech world.

[henslee]

44. True piece of mind re:corporate or gov. home taps can only be

achieved by NOT SAYING ANYTHING ON YOUR PHONE THAT WILL GET YOU INTO TROUBLE.

[bowens43]

5. Other then saying something suspicious

and seeing if the men in black show up at your front door , there's no way to know.

[Jeanette in FL]

7. Here is some info

Finding a Physical Phone Tap

If you are worried that you have a phone tap problem, there are some ways to investigate the truth and try to find the tap. A physical phone tap is one that is actually present on your phone, or present somewhere along the phone ...

By Kingston Amadan, 1/8/2006



By: Shawn Davis

If you are worried that you have a phone tap problem, there are some ways to investigate the truth and try to find the tap. A physical phone tap is one that is actually present on your phone, or present somewhere along the phone wire. Usually someone somewhere has done something to allow their phone wires to share with yours, so that they can pick up their phone and listen to your conversation — an even possibly record it. There are also transmitter taps that may be somewhere in your home and listening in. For transmitter taps, a regular "bug sweep" ought to do the trick. But for a physical phone bug? You need to do a little hunting.
.....

Of course, if you are subject to a government phone tap, it does not really matter. This is because the government uses the phone company’s switch. There is nothing anywhere near your house to tap into. You can escape a government tap by using a prepaid cell phone (a regular cell phone can be tapped the same way as a conventional phone) or a public pay phone, but it your land line tapped, there is no detecting a government phone tap.

(c) 2005 Copyright www.spyassociates.com. This article is about: Phone Tap.

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-3-2006-85365.asp

[MadHound]

8. There are devices you can buy to detect wiretaps

<http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/covert-counter-surveillance-countermeasures.html?engine=overture!4819&keyword=detection+wiretap>

And there is much information out there to help, just Google "wiretap detection" or some such word string and you will get all the information you want.

[bowens43]

10. These devices only work for physical taps

on the local line. It's not done that way anymore.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. depends. Pro or amateur job?

The pros will be undetectable.
The amateurs can be spotted with stuff you can get at Radio Shack.

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Yell out "I have a million dollars in cash to give to the RNC"

You bet they'll answer to that!

[Mutley]

15. You don't know.

You just have to hope it's not. Or start using random pay phones.

[NotThatNolan]

16. Or stop doing illegal things over the phone.

Knowing that I'm innocent usually helps calm my paranoia. He could try that.

[Mnemosyne]

17. "If you've got nothing

to hide..."

:popcorn:

[seabeyond]

18. ya, that mom that had syringes because diabetic

and 5 yr old told school mom had syringes......... as innocent as it was, can be abused.

or that man that was shot dead cause he had a panic attack on a plane. shoot first ask later. if you are innocent,.... doesnt work for me in this world

or kerry was a war fraud........ records and all......... if your innocent, doesnt matter

[EFerrari]

19. It doesn't matter if what you are doing is illegal or not. BushCo

has no compunction about probable cause or due process.

[NotThatNolan]

36. I'm sure BushCo gives a fuck about my conversations with grandma

They're probably in the White House right now giddy with anticipation over my next call to check on how grandpa's chemo is going. Yeah, I doubt they're actually trying to intercept calls to al Qaeda operatives at all. Why would they, when there are so many more interesting conversations with grandma to listen to? You're right. That is, indeed, the pinnacle of logic.

Mr. "I've got my reasons..." has done nothing wrong, I'm sure. I'll bet he's paranoid that he might someday have a panic attack on an airplane or something. That's probably why he has reason to believe he's being tapped. Not because he's doing something illegal over the phone. You're right, of course. Where was my head?

This is why we're not winning people over. It's because people insist on framing the NSA scandal as, "Oh no! Bush is listening to my grandma's conversations!" No, he's not. He's listening to people having phone conversations with al Qaeda operatives abroad, and he's doing so ILLEGALLY. We need to concentrate on the cold, hard laws he is breaking; not on some ridiculous paranoid delusions that Cheney is masturbating to our conversations with the school PTA leader. As soon as we start imagining what *might* be happening, we've shifted into paranoid conspiracy-land where most people don't care to follow, so we need to try sticking to the illegal things that we *know* are happening.

[Just Me]

41. So, you're okay with the commission of a federal crime AND you're ok,...

,...with the sort of government intrusion communist Russia imposed upon their people?

Yep. That's what BushCO and the neoconsters are guilty of.

Yep Yep YEP!!!!

Since when did the American people EVER embrace the concept that the government can listen to our private conversations, at will? :shrug: We're not just talking about talks with gramma but also conversations with our friends and family where thoughts are intimate and feelings private, not intended to be heard or judged by STRANGERS.

To the contrary, government is NEVER, EVER suppose to have that kind of power per the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES!!!

[NotThatNolan]

46. Inability to read, much?

I guess you "forgot" to read the whole paragraph where I talked of the importance of concentrating on the laws they are breaking instead of spending our time coming up with ridiculous paranoid delusions about them listening in to our conversations with grandma.

Oh, but I noticed you pointed out that they could be listening to conversations with friends and family aside from grandma. Wonderful point you made, there. No, what I said didn't go over your head at all.

[Just Me]

48. Doh! I was being sarcastic. Lost your sense of humor?

:shrug:

Being an asshole doesn't help your cause,...at all. 'Kay! }(

On edit: YES!!! EVERYONE values the privacy of their conversations, E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E!!!

[tnlefty]

22. The president, vice president and my representative all have longer

arrest records than I do, and I'm thinking they have MUCH more to hide than I could ever dream of...so when do I as a citizen get to turn the tables and check on them?

[converted_democrat]

25. Snap!! Good one!! n/t

[Just Me]

42. Since they are in positions of power, we are SUPPOSED to check on them,...

,...via our representatives. x( That's WHY our founders created three separate branches of government,...to place a leash on an executive that is power-mongering.

[converted_democrat]

23. You really think it matters if you've done anything wrong or not??

All I did was sign up for a peace group, and much of my mail has been gone through.. I wrote about it here on DU months before we had any clue about what was actually happening. I have done nothing wrong, except want peace, and they think it's "okay" to go through my mail.

They have no right to do any of the things that they are doing.. This is America. Stop apologizing for them, and stand up for your country.

[helderheid]

24. Like those Al Quakers?

:eyes:

[Mutley]

27. I think all the replies above me have pretty much said it all.

;)

[stepnw1f]

28. What Makes You ASSUME he/she is Doing Something Illegal?

DUH....

[annabanana]

30. no you're not

You're posting HERE, aren't you..

You can now be declared and "enemy combatant" by fiat, dragged off and held without counsel indefinately...

The Bill of Rights is in tatters...

[dogfacedboy]

33. No paranoia, no illegal activity.

This has been going on since before recent news developments.

[blonndee]

34. Oh how fucking progressive of you. Seriously, how vapid and anti-American

a statement is that?

By the way, you should tell Mr. Bush to "stop doing illegal things WITH the phones." Go ahead and tell him.

[NotThatNolan]

37. That's what we SHOULD be telling him.

We should be concentrating on the fact that the fucks are breaking the law. But no, we're all more interested in smoking a bowl and then coming up with wild fantasies about the NSA giving two shits about us. We're all content to imagine make-believe scenarios in which the NSA is feverishly listening in on our conversations with grandma. We don't seem to give a shit that BushCo is breaking the law and there is a very simple case to be made against that, because we're too busy getting off on imagining ourselves as his targets.

Is that the anti-American part? Me not thinking I'm important enough to warrant the NSA's time and effort? You guys go ahead and keep coming up with your conspiratorial fantasies. I'll stick with the actual case to be made against them, thank you.

[sandnsea]

39. That is what people care about

Unrestrained snooping into every aspect of our business. Because everybody is actually guilty of something, cheating on taxes, pot, driving drunk, padding a govt contract, who knows what. People really do care about that.

Bush breaking the law to catch terrorists??? Seems to me we lost that fight in 2004.

[NotThatNolan]

47. Unrestrained snooping into every aspect of our business?

Aside from paranoid fantasies, what actual evidence is there that they're monitoring every conversation of every American?

None.

So leave that conspiracy shit at the door and concentrate on the laws that we *KNOW FOR ABSOLUTE FACT* they are breaking. Every time somebody starts in about having a feeling that the NSA is bugging their grandma, we lose more and more people who would've been perfectly perceptive to documented illegal activity. I don't know where you guys got the idea that fantasy drama is a better weapon than documented fact. The simple fact that Bush illegally authorized warrantless interception of calls to and from al Qaeda suspects is enough to make a case against him. Why do so many people feel the compulsive urge to add paranoid delusions on top of that and muddle the case with what ifs?

[sandnsea]

51. Oh please,

Do you not see what passes for news and entertainment in this country??? Have you never had a conversation with a survivalist? Do you not get why booga booga terra terra works? Or why the only thing that has really gotten this country united in ten years was 9/11 and Terri Schiavo??

Fear, and fear the government will invade your privacy. Has nothing to do with conspiracies, has to do with human nature. The logical fact that Bush broke the law is for the intellectuals who get it already anyway.

[Just Me]

53. You're wrong. NSA is engaging in "fishing".

They "hook" a word(s) and infiltrate those who use that word(s): obscure freakin' words!!

It's a fucking witch hunt and ridiculously intrusive.

But, you don't get that, apparently. You just don't get that.

Nevertheless, at least you ARE pointing out the obvious: they are and have been committing federal crimes. Why they are not placed immediately under arrest: they are in power.

[Just Me]

45. Yes. ",...the fucks are breaking the law."

NO. We are all NOT NOT NOT more interested in the other bullshit you propose. I don't appreciate your convictions especially since I do not engage in "smoking a bowl" or other criminal activities. Your implication that we are more interested in hiding our improprieties than protecting against abuses of power,...really pisses me off. It's a neo-mcCarthyism-like implication and WE ALL SHOULD HAVE LEARNED FROM THAT BULLSHIT!!!

Moreover, as a poster pointed out above,....WE ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD HAVE THE POWER TO PULL OUT ALL SKELETONS BY THIS ABUSIVE REGIME. They are supposed to be the outstanding ones. They have been the most abusive and exploitative having spent OUR LIVES and TRILLIONS OF OUR TREASURE.

Which criminals should be tapped,...us or those who have EXPLOITED AND USED us?

[blonndee]

54. It is anti-American to give up your rights "just because"

you think you have nothing to hide. It's anti-American to accept tyranny.

Very simple.

[berni_mccoy]

20. If you are referring to the type of wiretapping the NSA is doing...

then you are out of luck. Wiretap is an old term adopted to be used with increasing technology. The way the gov't tapped lines before required putting a physical device on your telephone line (at your house or at the pole). Now wiretapping is done at the central switches of the phone companies. These switches are just computers trafficing bits of data (your voice get's encoded/decoded). There is no way to detect a wiretap of that kind.

[stop the bleeding]

21. can a FOIA be filed in regards to phone company records??? n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

26. Trust Bush!

That's all any of us can do now!

[joeybee12]

29. Don't pay your phone bill...if they keep your service going, then

you're being tapped. Dick Gregory has not paid his phone bill in 30+ years. The FBI is still tapping him. He knows the FBI won't let Ma Bell shut him off, so he just doesn't pay the bill.

[rustydog]

31. If you threaten to harm the president and are arrested

the next day...your phone was tapped.

[0rganism]

35. Use the Colbert method: bug your own phone, then you'll know

"It's the only way to be sure."

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

40. If you're worried, switch to VOIP

While I doubt it's foolproof, it would take a lot of effort for someone to tap it.

[slackmaster]

43. You should assume that it is tapped

Just as you should assume that everything you send over the Internet is not secure and it will be archived forever, accessible to law enforcement.

[pinniped]

49. If you say certain 'keywords' does the clicking start...

or is it intermittent?

[meisje]

50. look under all rocks around your house! Any black vans parked outside?

[xultar]

52. When they've changed your out going message to...

Hi, this is Osama B.
If you want the directions to the closest sleeper cell press 1
If you want to preview the audio from my latest video press 2
If you want to hear me rant about the infidels press 3
If you want discount tickets to Iraq press 4


:rofl:

[pitohui]

55. you can't assume it is and go on from there

just like the 60s! everything old is new again