Copyright (c) 2011 Opperman Investigations Inc

Years ago
it was normal childhood behavior to make a few prank calls while growing
up. It was mostly good fun for the kids but could be a nuisance if you
were on the receiving end of the crank calls. In the mid 80s the phone
company introduced a service called Caller ID. This enabled a person to
see the name and phone number of the person calling in. This took most
of the fun out of the childhood prank call. But even caller ID did not
put a stop to more serious harassing phone calls. This could be calls
where the caller just lets it ring then hangs up, heavy breathing or
even Violent verbal abuse over the phone to their victim. Caller ID did
not do much o stop this because people would just dial *67 before making
the call, Disabling or blocking the Caller ID feature.

It was
around this time that the phone company introduced Call Trace , *57.
Many states offer a feature where you can dial *57 shortly after
receiving a phone call and then at the end of the month you’ll see the
callers information on your next months phone bill. his also put serious
crimp into the sport of making harassing phone calls. Today call trace
is not as widely available as it once was. Many states require a police
report before activating it and many states the police will not
prosecute a hang up call. They will only investigate a harassing
telephone call if here is a specific threat.

Private investigators
have taken up the slack by offering a private telephone trap and trace
service so that the general public can rent a telephone trap line. This
enables the victim of telephone harassment to get an instant email
notification of a caller’s telephone number even if the caller uses *67
to block the caller ID on the victims phone. A telephone trap line
utilizing ANI, automatic Number Identification can unblock blocked
calls.

But what if the caller is using a caller ID spoofing web
site or spoof card? Can the call still be traced? The answer is yes and
no. The telephone trap line can reveler the actual number the person is
calling from and disable the Caller ID Spoof card or it may trace the
call back to the company that sells the service. In that case you can
contact them and try to get their cooperation. If not they can be
subpoenaed to get their records for court. Sometimes the trap line will
report the same number as the caller ID shows and te caller ID Spoof
card will defeat te tap line service but there is no way to until in
advance until the system is tested.