Bill Collector Phone Tactics

Depending on your personal situation you might want to get yourself a phone answering machine. Screen all your calls through it.

When you make a recording say something like "Hello, you have reached 555-1234. Leave a message at the beep". This way you provide a caller with no information at all. Do not include your name. Do not include a statement about "we'll get back to you" or "I'll get back to you". Just the barest statement is best.

Perhaps now would be the time to switch to an unlisted number. Some phone companies won't be happy about giving you an unlisted number as in some urban areas the number of unlisted numbers is surpassing the number of listed numbers (people hate telemarketing calls and listed people get a lot more of them).

To get around their nonsense, you might want to consider telling the phone company that an ex-friend has threatened your life on an earlier call. Tell them that you are afraid for your life. They will disconnect your number within a few hours and provide you with a new unlisted number in a day or so. This is routine stuff for them.

Radio Shack sells a nifty little box. It goes between your phone and the wall outlet connection. It blocks outgoing caller id which can be quite useful for anyone attempting to protect their freedom.

For the purchase price of around twenty bucks you buy yourself some peace of mind regarding outgoing calls. When you pick up your phone you'll hear a little beep to let you know it's working.

You can make an outgoing call and know that the other end won't be able to collect the usual caller id information.

But even with this device in place, your number can be traced so you might want to return any suspicious calls from a pay phone several miles from your home.

If a bill collector is breaking the law by claiming to be an attorney when they're not, making threats, calling at odd hours having a tape recording of his illegal comments may be quite useful later on down the line.

Again radio shack can fix you up with a nifty little cassette recorder that only records when your phone is lifted from it's cradle. As state laws regarding the recording of phone conversations vary from state to state, check your local laws before installing any form of recorder.