Both malicious and playful harassment can be a highly emotional and scary occurrence for the victim. Any repeated, unwanted contact can be legally defined as harassment. It’s not funny, and most victims regard the experience as a life-changing event.
If you receive regular calls or texts containing sexual innuendos, heavy breathing, silence, laughing, weird background noises, or just repeated “fun” nuisance calls and texts, the actions can be legally defined as harassment. The communications do not have to be threatening to qualify, and can be phone calls, email, text spam, personal contact, or creepy messages on social media.
Here’s a list of things you can do immediately to stop the problem from escalating.
7 Phone Apps And Safety Features You Can activate
- Most people don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, but it’s possible to execute calls from all over the world using the internet and a fake local caller ID generator. Your phone’s caller ID function may not be sufficient to identify disguised phone numbers. Install a caller ID app that will reveal the true identity of a caller and block the numbers you don’t recognize.
- Number blocking tools can be circumvented, so if you do get tricked into answering a misleading call you need to record the call. SmartMob has been around for years.
- Also take a screenshot or a photograph of the call record as it appears on your phone. Download your cell phone records or get them from your service provider to present to an investigator if needed.
- If the creep likes to leave voice messages, the caller ID app will identify calls from listed or other unknown numbers, and send them to your voicemail. The No More Voicemail app has a nice little twist: It will prevent people from leaving annoying voicemail messages by forwarding your unanswered calls to a different number that just keeps ringing.
- Install the TrapCall app, or contact your service provider to activate a call trap function. You may have to provide proof and details of the harassment to convince them of the need for a call trap. They can access their customer records to identify the owner of the number and to provide a name and address to law enforcement.
- Ask your service provider for the call return service code. In the US the code is generally *69, but you may have to purchase credits or pay extra for the service. Next time the perpetrator calls, enter the call return code after the call ends. You should reach an automated voice message reading the caller’s true number, and instructions on how to return the call.
- Also ask your service provider to activate a “call trace” function. Every time the creep calls, add to the evidence by pressing the call trace code (usually *57 in the US) directly after the call ends to send his phone number to law enforcement.
5 Things you can do To Find The Creep Yourself
- Try a reverse-lookup database. WhitePages, Zabasearch, and several other free websites can provide basic phone number information. Most will only give you the phone number’s location, and possibly the name of the service provider.
- If the situation is urgent or dangerous, don’t dawdle. Choose a premium service and pay the fee to obtain comprehensive and reliable information on your stalker. Nuwber can provide a complete profile including criminal records, addresses, contacts, and the internet activities of your stalker.
- If the harassment is low-key, try typing the number into an internet search engine. If you are lucky, phone numbers can produce pretty accurate information on the owner unless the number is unlisted, brand new, or has been deliberately kept secret to avoid association with an individual.
- Repeat the search on social media sites, especially if you suspect that the caller is someone you know. Facebook has a setting that allows people to search for users using just a phone number. If the option is allowed and not blocked by other privacy settings, you have a good chance of success.
- If you are absolutely convinced that the caller does not present a physical threat, get a friend to call his number anonymously from a payphone or a Google Voice number. Let her ask for the person’s name, but urge her to be polite and to refrain from hurling insults or accusations around. It could irreparably damage your chances for a legal solution to the problem if things get serious.
What To Do If You Fear For Your Safety
If you receive threats of bodily harm, or if the harassment accelerates, you should contact your local authorities. They may have instant access to information about the caller, but you’ll need to be well prepared, so prepare your evidence before you approach them:
Make it easy for an outside investigator to find the correct details with an organized portfolio of proof. Highlight the problematical calls in your phone records, and cross-reference each incident with the correct screenshot or photo.
Also compile proof that you have tried to stop the harassment. Save a screenshot of every occasion when you told the offender to stop his harassment.
Assemble all the information you have about the caller, e.g. name, location, or service provider. If the harasser is a former partner or friend, you need to add evidence of how the relationship soured or ended. Look beyond phone records. Save all Facebook messages, email correspondence, photos, instant chat messages, and video calls.
Speak to a detective. If you know where the caller lives you will need to go to law enforcement in his area, even if he lives in another city. Remember to make a backup of all your data, and to keep an extra indexed copy handy for quick referencing if the police need to check any details.
What Happens If You Identify The Creep?
Don’t get mad. Do not engage with him at all, except for a single line: “Stop Harassing Me.”
Don’t jeopardize any criminal or civil proceedings by responding with anger, insults, or threats. A canny defender will contend that you fueled the fire because you showed no fear and responded with attacks on him. If he can produce evidence of you “harassing” him with angry calls and texts, you will have no recourse to the law unless the harasser has sent you threats of bodily harm.
