Is there a way to detect illegal phone taps?

Tapping into someone's phone line is relatively easy to do on a land line. Fortunately, phone taps are easy to detect. Tune in to this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com to get Marshall Brain's tips on ferreting out illegal phone taps.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com
where smart happens. Join Josh and Chuck, the guys who
bring you stuff you should know, as they take a
trip around the world to help you get smarter in
a topsy turv economy. Check out the all new super
Stuff Guide to the Economy from house stuff Works dot com,
available now exclusively on iTunes Hi. A Marshall brain with

(00:25):
today's question, is it possible to detect if someone is
illegally using my phone line? It is possible and relatively
easy for someone else to tap into your landline phone,
especially if you live in a dorm or an apartment building.
If someone has access to the wire, they can connect
a phone to it and use your line. It's pretty rare,

(00:46):
though for one thing, the penalty for doing it is stiff.
It's also relatively easy to detect, and in general, phone
wires are not that easy to get to because they're
hidden inside walls. However, it's not unheard of. There are
two possibilities. The perpetrator can create a permanent splice into
your wire, in which case you would be able to

(01:07):
see if the splice is there by tracing the entire
length of the wire, or the perpetrator can clip in
intermittently at a junction box. This is what a telephone
repair person does when testing your line. In that case,
there's no physical evidence, it's fairly easy to catch someone
doing this. One thing you can do is get a
tape recorder for phone calls. The recorder is completely automatic

(01:30):
and starts recording as soon as anyone picks up any extension,
which would include an extension tapped into your line. It
captures both sides of the conversation. You could listen to
the tape and probably get a good idea of who
is tapped in. Hooking into a phone line like this
is as you would expect a federal offense. Once you
have evidence that it's occurred, turning it over to the

(01:52):
phone company or a police department for prosecution is the
correct path to follow. One easy solution to this problem
is to eliminate the landline and use a cell phone instead.