Mechanized calls without a live operator are illegal in many areas, but the law doesn't seem to stop them.

This page is divided into two parts:

1. Call Trace Information (and Law Enforcement)
2. Mechanized Call Information Used by Telemarketing Scum

Note: It is highly unlikely these are being used for direct sales pitches. (Skip to mechanized call information used by telemarketing scum)

Law Enforcement Agencies

All law enforcement agencies should authorize personnel to "call trace" (1157 or *57 in North America) all mechanized calls. "Call trace" reports can then be forwarded to the cognizant agency.

(This section also applies to other persons using "call trace" for other reasons, such as tracing personal harassment phone calls.)

Call Trace

How Call Trace Works

"Call Trace" is different from caller ID in two respects:

1. "Call trace" does not use the caller ID channels and is not subject to caller ID blocks.
   "Call trace" is also usually successful in pointing to a T-1 line, although this is generally irrelevant to mechanized call operations.
2. "Call trace" does not provide the consumer with the information. The consumer must request that the "call trace" information be provided to law enforcement.

To Initiate a Call Trace

Most law enforcement personnel aren't familiar with "call trace" procedures, since it isn't part of their day-to-day operations. "Call trace" is available in the US and probably most other countries with universal telephone service.

After the call, but before the receipt of another call, dial 1157 or *57 (North American phones). The local telco (dial tone provider) will charge a fee for this. Generally it's in the range of $1.00/trace but each jurisdiction is different.

Expect a recording to indicate whether the "call trace" was successful.

In some locations, the procedure may be to initiate the trace during the call. This is an older system, which I believe is completely obsolete.

Cellphone companies may have a flat fee for the report only, but may end up not charging for the report if "call trace" fees are regulated locally. Since all cellphone calls are logged, it is not necessary to dial *57 on a cellphone.

The primary dialtone provider (Regional Bell) will have an information number to describe "call trace" procedures.

You Need a Log

Keep a log of calls, identifying date, time and nature of the call.

Providing Call Trace Data to Law Enforcement Agency

After a "call trace" or series of "call traces", the consumer requests a report to be provided to a specified law enforcement agency. It is necessary to first identify a complaint or incident number so the law enforcement agency can match the report to something.

If the "call trace" data is part of another complaint (e.g., personal harassment), ask that the first agency circle the particular call and forward it.

Telco Requirements

Some dialtone providers "require" three traces. This "requirement" may or may not be recognized by law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies are the ones to decide what must be produced and it is unlikely that they will pay attention to the phone company's rules.

As a practical matter isolated personal harassment calls will not be acted upon, so "three calls traces" may be needed for this. Obviously the requirements for complaints about mechanized calls would be different.

From a legal standpoint, a complaint of personal harassment requires corroborating evidence. Generally this means something to tie a "call trace" to harassing activity. If the offender leaves an answering machine message, or if the call is otherwise legally recorded, this becomes easier. Likewise if there is a protective order forbidding calls. (In the case of commercial harassment by telemarketing scum, corroborating evidence would come from diverse sources.)

Technical Tricks

You can "hang" a war dialer (or any automated dialer) by simulating a dialtone. Normally the war dialer will be set to go "on hook" after the completion of its detection. Theoretically, this breaks the connection but many times the called party (the victim) can stay on-hook long enough to receive the next call. The war dialer will wait for dialtone and begin with the next call.

If you simulate a dialtone, and if the war dialer doesn't succeed in clearing the line, the war dialer will dial into your simulated dialtone, and keep doing this until it succeeds in clearing the line.

The difficult part is being ready with a simulated dialtone as soon as the auto dialer hangs up.

It is highly unlikely mechanized calls are being used for direct sales pitches. These machines are used for various "scanning" purposes, listed below.

Vetting Numbers

UPDATE - Many sleezeball operations are using these machines to "war dial" telephone exchanges to vet for good numbers. Expect a "please press 1 if interested." followed by a pause, followed by "We're sorry, but all of our operators are busy. We will try to reach you later."

Since unsolicited mechanized calls are clearly illegal, the scum still using them are merely using them to vet "good" telephone numbers, time-of-day, etc. Depending on the purpose, you can expect a live call 2-6 weeks later. This call will not identify the source of the mechanized call, and will probably have nothing to do with the mechanized "lead".

How surprising! Sleeze in the telemarketing industry! Fortunately they're probably calling back on ordinary phones, so expect to have some real fun in a week or two.

If you live in an area where automated dialers are still not taken seriously by law enforcement -

Get the scum to listen, and try to consume as much time as possible. At one time the television or radio speaker worked well for that purpose. More modern machines require more sophistication, however.

Broken Equipment - Give a response consistent with "broken equipment". Answer, but be nonresponsive. Some machines "stamp" the phone number, but if not, give your number, mumbling the last four digits. Do not press buttons beyond the first response, but instead state that the phone won't dial, etc. Express interest in the product. If you get a call back, state that you don't want to be subject to antiracketeering laws because you responded to an illegal machine call.

Nail Them

If you get a machine call at a residence, give a name that's unique to machine calls. Then report them to your local A.G.'s office. You may even use call trace (1157 or *57, but check on the costs for this service. Some telephone companies claim to limit this service to three calls, but I doubt they'll tell the regulators that!)

If you want to spend the money, you can call trace the machine call (see above)

This is typically $1.00/trace but some areas have different charges. Then (depending on your local laws) follow up with a request that a criminal complaint be filed against the caller. (Don't expect the state enforcement agency to be familiar with retrieving traced calls.) Ignore the telco's rules of "three call traces required for a report".

If you later identify the human caller who calls back later, be sure to get that person's name! This exercise could end up going nowhere or it could end up providing some real fun for someone in the DA's office.

Scanning

Mechanized calls can be attributed to:

War Dialing (dialing all numbers in an exchange) with a Mechanized Message

1. scanning for numbers and time to call live victims for later (unrelated) telemarketing calls
2. extremely clueless telemarketing attempts

Hang Up Calls, no message

1. telescum who set their predictive dialers to abandon calls
2. scanning for numbers and time to call live victims for later telemarketing calls by "work from home" operations
3. scanning for fax spam targets
4. scanning for open modems (computer cracking, looking for modems set to auto-answer (ATs0=true))
5. other "2600" stuff (phone hackers - mostly looking for tones and unusual system responses)
6. your moron friends who don't know how to use a cellphone (:

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site first posted 3 Nov 1996 ~~ This page first posted 16 Oct 02 ~~ rev October 9, 2007 ~~ written in WordPerfect 5.1 ~~ copyright 1996, 2002 by Stan Protigal ~~ Feel free to link to this.