Evesdropping on phone calls

[r0GuE]

My personal favorite from way back:
RING
"hello.."
"Yes maam this is the phone company and we are doing some work, your phone is going to ring in a bit, please don't answer it".

A while later
RING
"hello"
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHRGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!!"

Some laughed... some peed themselves.
I shoulda had my donkey kicked /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Chuck52]

"hello"

"Is this the washing woman?"



What comes next?



Chuck

 

[Kelvin]

I did a quick "scan" through all of the replies and will offer one other potential source of problem that I didn't see mentioned.

Others can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that if you have a cordless phone plugged into the electrical & phone outlets the base unit will broadcast the voice transmissions even if you are using a corded phone on another extension.

Even though you have new cordless & cellular phone equipment, do you still have an older cordless phone plugged in somewhere that operates in the frequency range easily monitored by scanners?

Kelvin

 

[sendero]

I'm not 100% sure, but I am 99% sure. A cordless phone does not broadcast unless it (its own remote) is off hook.

 

[TresCrows]

( Trecrows

Would it be possible to construct a small transmitter that could be tied into the phone line inside the exterior junction box that would then broadcast the conversation the short distance to the nieghbors?

Steve )

Steve say it can be done and I see no reason it could not be but it is probably highly illegal. Why do you think your neighbors are so interested in your private life that they would go to such an effort? It is really unlikely.
Uh, one more thing--hmmmmmm---I would not be inviting any lady friends over while your wife is way. Seems some of them ladys don't understand that it is a gag and might develop a hankering fer ya. Then what? J

 

[Kelvin]

I don't have enough information to agrue one way or the other.

I know that I currently have a fairly new AT&T cordless phone set that has two remote handsets; one can sit in the base cradle and the other has its own charging cradle. This base unit has to transmit when one handset is in the base unit in order for the 2nd handset to work properly.

A few years ago (early 1990s or late 1980s?) I remember playing with an older model multi-band radio that covered many frequency bands (aircraft, fire, police etc) and I picked up transmissions from my house phone even though the old cordless phone that I had at the time was not being used (can't remember if it was on the cradle or not).

I still think that an older cordless unit or even a newer multi-handset unit like mine could be a possibile source of his information leak.

Kelvin

 

[TresCrows]

"I still think that an older cordless unit or even a newer multi-handset unit like mine could be a possibile source of his information leak."

As discussed earlier in this thread he says he has newer type phones. Digital and spread spectrum cordless phones and digital cell phones would be very diffucult to listen in on and require a considerable investment in time and equipment which would most likely have to be homemade. Last time I checked they were not selling "Phone" scanners at Radio Shack. You know these spread spectrum and digital jobs are jumping frequencies all the time and they are digitally encrypted. You simply cannot just listen in on them. Now, in the recent "old days" there were cordless phones that were analog and they did not skip frequencies--those types were easy to listen in on.
Do you shread your papers and documents before putting them in the trash? J