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From: julian@bongo.uucp (Julian Macassey)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Tracing Obscene/Nuisance Calls in the UK
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Date: 14 Sep 90 16:38:42 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 645, Message 5 of 11


In article <12079@accuvax.nwu.edu>, leilabd@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Leila
Burrell-Davis) writes: >

> A women's group that I belong to has received a number of complaints
> from women about the way in which the police and British Telecom in
> the UK handle reports of obscene or 'nuisance' calls - essentially the
> charge is that unless you've been having calls threatening physical
> violence for an extended period they're just not interested.

> We plan to take this up with the authorities, but before we do I would
> be very interested to know what it is technically possible for the
> phone company to do to trace such calls. I have seen some discussion
> in this group as regards the US but don't know to what extent it is
> applicable to the UK.
	
	My sister who is a legal reptile practicing in the UK (Kent)
specialises is battered women. She could possibly explain what "Old
Bill" (The Fuzz) and BT will and can do legally. I could call her and
ask, but reptiles hate to give away information free that they can
charge money for. If this thread gets into it, I may call her. She
will suspect my motives though.

	I know that technically in the old days BT could trace a call
as long as they had an engineer or two standing around. I have heard
rumours and seen some stuff a few years ago in the {New Scientist}
about the capabilities for "supervisory loops" - eavesdropping to most
people - on the new System-X switches. I also recall an article in the
{New Scientist} claiming that the reason BT went with an Ericsson
AXE-10 switch for its overseas calls was its better snooping features.
But I digress.

	Simply put, telcos can trace calls, they are usually reluctant
to do it because most of the reported harassment calls are domestic in
nature. The cops traditionally do not like to be involved in domestic
disputes, even if violence is involved. There are many reasons for
this which I will not get into here. But if you persist, the cops and
telco will trace a call. Note that the more modern and sophisticated a
switch, the better the tracing capabilities. BT is introducing
itemised billing. If they can tell you who you called, they can also
run it back the other way. They may not want to do it, or admit they
can, but they can. They do this internally to trace trouble reports
and fix equipment.

	I have discussed obscene callers extensively with Pac-Bell
security people. The conversations covered tracing the calls and what
they did with the perpetrators. If there is any interest I can post
that info separately.

	There used to be a BT intercept service available when I last
lived in the UK. It was a long time ago - the 60s - so my memory is
slightly faded. I used to call a lot of politicians and others in the
news. I would often hit an intercept operator who would ask me who I
was calling and what my name was. If I was acceptable, my call would
be put through. The people I dealt with had the GPO (Old BT) provide
this service for a fee because of harassment. I had a politician
friend who had an intercept on his line, I always gave my name as
Harry Roberts. I was put through immediately. At that time a minor
hood called Harry Roberts had gunned down three cops and was the most
wanted man of the decade. His name and picture were in the press
daily. Never did anyone question the name or send a squad car around
to check.

	
Julian Macassey, n6are  julian@bongo.info.com  ucla-an!denwa!bongo!julian
N6ARE@K6IYK (Packet Radio) n6are.ampr.org [44.16.0.81] voice (213) 653-4495