When it’s election season, people usually receive calls asking people to support a certain candidate. Other times, it’s for solicitation—volunteers asking people to donate to the campaign of that candidate. Then on any given day, people receive calls about products or services that they can avail themselves of.
Still, there are those who just make prank calls. They are irritating! But you know the worst kind of call you may receive? It’s the “call harassment.”
Phone call harassment comes in many forms
What exactly is call harassment?
Basically, it is an unwanted call that involves obscenities, harsh words and threats. Just one of these would constitute phone call harassment. Phone calls should not stress you out. So when you receive a call that annoys you and puts you on the edge, then there’s a big possibility that it’s a form of phone call harassment.
Sometimes, call harassment is as simple as heavy breathing. Imagine this: Your phone rings, you pick it up and on the other end it’s just silence. Then you realize that the person on the other end is breathing. Wouldn’t you panic? They might not have said anything but the silence or the breathing is enough to put you on the edge. It’s enough to make you think that the caller might be some maniac or someone stalking you. It’s a terrible feeling.
Or maybe the phone call harassment is from someone you actually know. Every conversation can be made calmly. So if that acquaintance of yours starts berating you and threatening you, then you should know that you can always file a phone call harassment suit.
By the way, the calls don’t have to be multiple to become harassment. One call is enough to file a complaint.
Also, even if you did something wrong, you don’t deserve to be harassed on the phone. Here is a common example: You might have been remiss in your credit card payments. The credit card company might have outsourced collection calls and you have been assigned a person who made obscene remarks about your failure to pay for your dues. Or maybe there were threats thrown around. You have to know that it would already constitute collection call harassment.
No one deserves verbal abuse.
What is a phone call harassment suit?
Americans are protected by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA). This generally sets the guidelines for how phone conversations should be made particularly from companies. For example, telemarketing needs to follow some guidelines so as not to disturb or annoy people. A lot of people let it slide. Perhaps it’s too much to bring it to court. But in most cases, people are not even aware that they have some sort-of protection from such calls.
The law also has some specific technical requirements when it comes to various messaging systems. Basically, the suit was used specifically to stop harassment from telemarketers.
Basically, the phone call harassment lawsuit is a recourse to stop call harassment. However, it should be your last resort. You will need to hire a lawyer to help you with your TCPA suit. If you don’t have the patience or money to take harassment to court, there are other ways to stop the calls.
Who to call?
If you are simply annoyed by telemarketers, you should call the company and report the matter. Some companies will refer you to a division that will handle the matter, while some companies will direct you to file a complaint before the police. If you don’t want the hassle, you should first look up the policy of your phone company. You can call them for the information.
Now, it’s important that you know the policy for reporting annoying calls because you will surely lose your patience with the system. Hear this: if the policy of the phone company is to report to the police first, there is no use insisting that you report to the company. You will just be wasting your saliva. The company will not do anything about it because it’s “company policy.” And vice versa—the police will just tell you to go to file a complaint before the company first if the business’s police state otherwise.
However, if it is something serious like when the caller starts using obscene words and is making threatening statements, then that definitely constitutes harassment. In this situation, you can go to the police and file a call harassment complaint. You can be specific with your details because this is hard to prove.
Trap
When it comes to phone call harassment complaints, phone companies can actually set up a trap for you using your phone line. But this solution is usually only used when you get repeated calls that are harassing in nature. In this case, you have to keep a log of the number of times the caller threatened you and the date and time of the calls. You also need to jot down what the caller said so you won’t forget. Details are important in the report.
In some cases, the phone company will advise you to use the Call Trace, which is a feature on the phone service. Some phone companies would recommend this because it would be easier. If the recommendation comes from the company itself, then it will not charge you for the feature. Call Trace is something you can install on the phone yourself. It traces where the call is coming from as long as it is within the service area. People don’t usually activate the Call Trace because it comes with a fee. More often, it is unnecessary anyway.
How to avoid call harassment
This is quite hard. Some people will always find a way to harass or hurt others. But one way to lessen the chance of this happening is by making it hard for strangers to get your phone number. Do not put it in your social media accounts and other public information systems. To avoid telemarketers, you can call the Federal Trade Commission to register your number under the Do Not Call Registry.