# Phone Tapping Bugging



## Patty C (28 Jan 2012)

Hi,
This may be a long shot.. but wondering if phone tapping/bugging occurs nowadays and if there is a way to know if its happening to you.

Im not an alarmist by any means, but have my concerns that someone living quiet near to me has a lot of information about my friends, work and even the contents of emails i got from a particular organisation.

I know this persons capabilities and it wouldnt be out of bounds, but how can you find out if there is interference with on mobile landline or internet?

Many thanks


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## Lightning (28 Jan 2012)

Do you have your voicemail turned off or do you frequently change your voicemail password?

Do you have your WiFi password protected?

Do you frequently change your email account password?

Do you shred all personal documents before putting them in bins?


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## Patty C (29 Jan 2012)

I change my email password from time to time, but i was thinking that it may be something different , like that this person can see into all my stuff rather than having a password, maybe bypassing passwords if it possible. As you can see im not very Tec minded. but have my concerns and dont know where to turn to as phoning/emailing is prohibitive. 
Many thanks Ciaran, any other suggestions anyone?


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## iamthemoney (29 Jan 2012)

Patty C said:


> I change my email password from time to time, but i was thinking that it may be something different , like that this person can see into all my stuff rather than having a password, maybe bypassing passwords if it possible. As you can see im not very Tec minded. but have my concerns and dont know where to turn to as phoning/emailing is prohibitive.
> Many thanks Ciaran, any other suggestions anyone?



hi
did this person ever have physical access to your pc  at any stage? even in the distant past?   

do you use the same password for all sites? if so use unique passwords for each website..

is your antivirus up to date, ? make sure it is, and download free malwarebytes, and run a full scan to see if it finds any bad stuff there.

do you use facebook, and is any of this info there, even in messages?  
you could also block this person from searching for you or even seeing your profile, in the privacy settings in facebook..  block them there from seeing anything..

review all installed software on your pc, too see what is actually installed,
go to control panel,  add remove programs / uninstall program  to see list of installed programs on your pc, just to make sure there is nothing dodgy there.

you could disable wifi on your router  ( if you have it enabled ) and connect to the router with ethernet cable direct to the pc instead,  this makes it impossible for them to  sniff any wifi traffic, as its then off!

if you are currently using wifi , you need to check and see what settings you are using, such as WEP,  keys can easily be hacked,  also how old is the router that you are using?
also use WPA 2 and a key longer than 64 characters.

there are a number of areas , where you can lock things down on, as mentioned above,  or you could  set the bait, and see for sure,  ie send an email with a particular piece of information  that you would have told nobody   ie a bogus bit of information    ( such as 2Million lotto win )  ,  and see if you hear it back...


lastly make sure that you have the most recent windows updates installed and a firewall on the pc turned on, and are running the latest version of browsers, firefox etc.


PM if you need any more help, as this is my area of expertise...


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## bullworth (29 Jan 2012)

Someone might be able to listen into your calls if they work for the phone company and work at  a telephone exchange. Also I think access to your phone line is possible from one of those shores/telecoms boxes on the street where all the wires from the houses on a street meet up for rerouting. So one thing to do would be to see if the wires have been interfered with at all.
However to monitor someone 24 hours a day and record it all down in a format where it can be retrieved is more than just a full time job and requires an immense amount of resources.
Alternatively ..and this always requires consideration in the absence of further information. An unfounded unproven obsession with being followed and heightened feelings of paranoia which have too much prominence in your life compared to what you should be doing can be an early warning sign of schizophrenia or depression. So ask yourself is it reasonable and are you important enough to be under surveillance and have an open mind to getting your health checked out too. I'm just saying in general


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## iamthemoney (29 Jan 2012)

bullworth said:


> Someone might be able to listen into your calls if they work for the phone company and work at  a telephone exchange. Also I think access to your phone line is possible from one of those shores/telecoms boxes on the street where all the wires from the houses on a street meet up for rerouting. So one thing to do would be to see if the wires have been interfered with at all.
> However to monitor someone 24 hours a day and record it all down in a format where it can be retrieved is more than just a full time job and requires an immense amount of resources.
> Alternatively ..and this always requires consideration in the absence of further information. An unfounded unproven obsession with being followed and heightened feelings of paranoia which have too much prominence in your life compared to what you should be doing can be an early warning sign of schizophrenia or depression. So ask yourself is it reasonable and are you important enough to be under surveillance and have an open mind to getting your health checked out too. I'm just saying in general



it is not uncommon for someone to be under surveillance  if for example they are involved in an insurance claim , etc, and in the current economic economic climate, banks are actively using surveillance , to gather information on what assets etc someone may have....

then again, there could possibly be a more simple explanation,


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## Patty C (29 Jan 2012)

Some great information there and thank you both. 
Bullmouth , point taken about possibilities of depression schizophrenia etc, this is not the case. The person I fear maybe snooping is actually my ex, we are parted 8 years but he is not willing to let go. I went ahead with divorce 2 years ago but for a number reason we may have to go through the courts again. I an unemployed but recently got some casual work and surprised on my second day that my employer said my ex had been in touch and wondered if I was receiving cash for my days work. I simply couldnt believe it, this is only one small example of my concerns without going into greater detail.

iamthemoney, thanks for all the tec info and offer of help, I can see that I do need to tighten things up.


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