Is it totally impossible to track calls from a restricted number?

[DansGreyMj]

Long story short my ex is a nutjob, she made up a crazy story about me and cost me thousands of dollars in legal fees to prove my innocence, and it worked out in my direction. Lately I have been getting mysterious phone calls from a resticted number and now I am getting texts sent to my phone. Is there anyway at all to track where thes calls/texts are coming from I have a really strong feeling that it is her. I have spoken to verison and they have told me no, but does anyone know if I can go to my local PD and see if they can try and look it up? Any little bit helps, thanks guys.

 

[Johnnie Walker]

If you have a smartphone, there are a few apps available. Such as Call Unblocker and White pages, both work pretty good. Not 100% of course, but they work.

 

[tbburg]

Been a while since this has been a problem, but the answer before caller ID was:
First file a complaint with the local PD. Start making notes each time a harassing call comes in: DATE/time/length of call(easy to do with current tec. phones) Give the list to the police on a regular basis, they go the the phone co, and the the phone co has to pull records about call origination, etc.

 

[Darky]

A text should have a phone number attached.

 

[DansGreyMj]

It should but it didn't. I downloaded and signed up for TrapCall, I tested it and it works. I'm going to go to the PD tomorrow and see about tracking the last calls.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Johnnie Walker]

A text should have a phone number attached.

There are some websites that allow you to send txt to mobile phones, and usually just some sort of code. There was an app I used to have that you could "create a phone number" and thats what people would see when you called/sent txt. I used a 555 number. ha!

 

[Darky]

Yeah, i didn't think about the web texting...I can send a text from my Verizon account and put in any phone number...

 

[old_man]

Yes the calls can be tracked. I devised a system for a company called Telscan in Loveland Colorado to do just that. They used it to track down debtors.

 

[xcm]

There are some websites that allow you to send txt to mobile phones, and usually just some sort of code. There was an app I used to have that you could "create a phone number" and thats what people would see when you called/sent txt. I used a 555 number. ha!

all a txt msg is, is an email sent to [email protected]

 

[ChiXJeff]

all a txt msg is, is an email sent to [email protected]

Well.... that's one method of submitting an SMS message. It's by no means the only method. For years, I've sent SMS messages to both pagers and cell phones by direct submission to the carrier (look up the TAP protocol.) That method is being pushed out, and the SMTP submission is becoming far more common, simply because Internet connections have become much more robust and stable.

There are other methods, those are left as an exercise for the student.

 

[kastein]

it's totally possible to track whatever call you want, the data is in the header almost all the time and it generally just has the privacy bit set. All you need is to port the number to a PBX you control that you can configure to ignore the privacy bit, though that's more of a pain in the ass than most are willing to deal with unless they are telco nerds and already play with this stuff for fun.

Basically the telephone system blocks caller ID by sending it anyways and saying "please don't show this to them". It wasn't really designed with security in mind.

 

[old_man]

it's totally possible to track whatever call you want, the data is in the header almost all the time and it generally just has the privacy bit set. All you need is to port the number to a PBX you control that you can configure to ignore the privacy bit, though that's more of a pain in the ass than most are willing to deal with unless they are telco nerds and already play with this stuff for fun.

Basically the telephone system blocks caller ID by sending it anyways and saying "please don't show this to them". It wasn't really designed with security in mind.

This is the truth. In order for the telco to bill an 800 number, they have to be able to provide the calling number, so it is always in the packet. All you really have to do is call forward to an 800 number and they can see the number.