How can the police/telephone companies trace telephone harassment? Is there a way to prove the calls were made

if they were silent and I have no proof myself? I am talking about 100's of calls made over several weeks. I answered many of them but didn't speak. The police say they are dealing with it but don't say much more and the telephone company will only speak to the police so I can't get any information. I know who is making the calls so there are lots of leads. If it is proven what will happen to the person making the calls? I have made notes of the times and dates of most of the calls.

BT will put a monitor on your line (doesn't matter who your telco is, they all BT exchanges at some point) when the police tell them to. They will not do it at your presonal request.

If you have the exact dates and times of the Pest Calls then these can be matched to the trace records and the originating number(s) identified. It does not matter if it is a 'silent' call.

These calls are a criminal matter and could result in a restraining order. If the person then does it again they could be imprisoned for breaking the Order. This is effectively "Contempt of Court" and judges are not known to be lenient for that.

You could also invest in a Calling Line Identification monitor. This facility is available as "Caller Display" on many modern phones. You will have to pay BT a sub for it (about 拢1.50/month) but it's worth it.

If the caller is witholding their number you can also get BT to bar all incoming witheld number calls.
This has the added benefit of stopping "cold calls" from sales companies. Have a look at the early pages in your phone book for how to set these up.

i had the exact same thing happen to me.....it started off as silent phone calls that would just hang up and esculated to late night/early hours of the morning calls that were shouting obsenities when i answered....if i didnt answer they would literally just ring all night...anyway....i went to the police, told them everything, they liased with my phone company which i think was NTL at the time, this is what happened.....everytime i had 1 of these calls i had to answer it, then put the phone down and lift the receiver back up and dial a certain number, i think it was 14717.....what that did was logg the call with NTL and also give them the with-held number....this had to go on for a few weeks to really get a case of harrassment together...in the meantime the police had the phone number and of course had traced it to the person making the calls, who obviously thought they were untraceable as they were withholding their number.....the police came to me with the details of the people to see if i knew them, which i did, and then the case was dealt appropriately with from there and obviously the phone calls stopped.....its a horrible experience i know, you have to contact the police and take it from there.....you will know the people who are doing it and like me you may even be shocked by who it is.....good luck.

i would call you provider and tell them that you having prank calls.

Being a US citizen the police must first obtain a warrant to monitor your line.After that they will team with the phone companies security dept and techs to monitor the line as well as review past records.Once a patern is determined(which incoming call is suspect) they may create an audiable record of this person as well as a phone history for evidence in prosecution. Note:They do not sit and listen in on your phone calls to find this person . Only the suspect number is investigated noted and monitored at your request.Just dont want you to think they sit and listen.

You say you know who it is, and you also say you have no proof? I'd leave it to the phone company and the police between them, there are ways of dealing with this which they won't divulge, for obvious reasons. You're doing a good job, keeping a log, that may well come in handy in due course.