Dealing With Prank Calls

There are many ways to deal with prank calls. I am certain everyone has heard of the comedians laughing when they call some innocent victim to prank them. Even though it can be funny, more often than not, it is very annoying and sometimes scary. It can lead into a situation where you may have a stalker. If this is the case or if you just want to deal with it creatively, there are many things you can do. If prank calls persist consider telling your phone service to no longer accept blocked calls. Sometimes a fee is charged to do this. You may want to record the prank calls you are receiving. You will need to check your state laws but you usually need to tell the person that is pranking you that they are being recorded. This in itself my stop the phone stalker in his or her tracks. Harassing people on the telephone is illegal in most states, so you may have some recourse there. Many people do not find it funny. Being threatened or abused on the phone in the middle of the night is not their idea of fun. Though a lot of times it is done for fun, and it's not meant to hurt people, it can be very intimidating.

There are many places on line that you can go to to listen to those being pranked. There are websites that offer services where you can access prank calls for free. Sometimes it is a bad thing and encourages people to participate in such activities. Especially since the rise of the internet, it is very easy to get a portable phone number, or make a call through the Internet making them totally anonymous. It makes it very difficult to track the person down if they are using such services. There are services that exist that spoof the number of people making the receiver of the call think they are getting a call from someone who really is not making the call. Spoofing your phone number, like anything else, can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you are in a domestic violence situation ad you don't want anyone to know your whereabouts, then hiding your number can be a good idea. But if you are using it to harass people, of course its bad.

If you are being harassed on the phone and feel like you have absolutely no recourse, you could make lemonade out of lemons yourself and do the same thing as the owners of the prank call websites. Record them all and post them to a social network site. Then redirect the users to your own website with your database of crazy calls. Some of the prank calls, or crank calls as they are often called, are vulgar or scary. In these extreme cases you need to contact your local authorities and have the number traced.

Pranking people on the phone has become more sophisticated over the years. Before the caller ID days it was very common to receive such calls. With the advent of caller ID, it slowed down drastically. When people could block their numbers from being displayed it picked up again, but on the flip side, telephone customers simply blocked those who didn't display their numbers. These days it is even more sophisticated. Pranksters get prepaid cell phones and use the anonymity of the Internet to prank or harass people. They can make a phone call from a chat client with the receiving end never knowing who it truly is. They can fake or spoof their phone number using the many websites available.

Sometimes receiving a prank call can be fun, you can use the methods mentioned above to deal with it. Post it to a social networking site, giving traffic to your prank call blog or website. Maybe you can use it for a discussion thread on your forum. As long as the tide does not turn to dangerous or harassing, it can be okay. When the situation becomes threatening or you feel your life is in danger or that of your family, then you need to take immediate action by calling your local authorities and telephone office.