To handle telephone harassment, get an unlisted number and hang up on harassing calls. If they persist or are threatening, involve authorities and the phone company. Understand the legal definition of harassment and report calls immediately. Changing your number and using an answering machine can also be effective.
Handling telephone harassment starts with maintaining a certain level of anonymity, so getting an unlisted number is a good first step. If you get a harassing phone call, you should generally hang up the phone to avoid encouraging the negative behavior. If the calls persist, or if they are threatening in nature, do not hesitate to involve the authorities and the telephone company. There are official actions that can be taken by the police, but sometimes it takes more than a single call to get concerned. The same generally applies to the telephone company.
It’s helpful to understand the legal definition of telephone harassment so you know what legal rights you have in different situations. Basically, harassment involves threatening or intimidating calls. Sometimes there is heavy breathing or outright verbal abuse, and sometimes the person may just call and say nothing. He has more to do with how he makes you feel than what exactly the perpetrator is doing. Sometimes debt collectors can cross a line in their telephone behavior and it can reach the level of real telephone harassment, but it can be more difficult to prove legally.
It’s usually good to hang up right away, because many prank calls can be emboldened by any kind of reaction. For example, they may find an outpouring of anger amusing, or they may enjoy having someone beg them to stop. Of course, hanging up won’t necessarily stop them: These people can be persistent, but the more they call you, the easier it will be to get the law and the phone company to take your complaints seriously. You should generally start reporting calls to authorities right away, especially if you feel threatened, but they may wait until there is a clear pattern of behavior before they act on your complaints. If there is an overt threat in the call, immediate action can often be obtained, but callers often avoid overt threats for this very reason.
Sometimes, even after the phone company has created a trail for you, it may be difficult to track down the perpetrator. These individuals may use payphones and other methods to avoid detection. In these cases, it might be a good idea to change your phone number and make sure the new number isn’t listed.
An interesting trick to use is to change your own number and leave the other number active with an answering machine attached. The goal here is to get the perpetrator to leave threatening messages, which you can eventually use as evidence in a future trial or to get the police to help you with your situation. This can be an effective approach to dealing with an ongoing telephone harassment problem.
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