Foxtrot wrote:
I have never been a conspiracy theorist but I suspect that a
particular group of people may try to tap my landline.

I am in the UK and access to my phone wires is quite easy because
I live in a block of flats. There are various oblong concrete
covers for the BT and VirginMedia lines to the flats.

Currently I use VirginMedia for phone service.

I wonder if a tap which juts picks up the signal modulation on a
line but does not interrupt it can be detected at all.

Can I perform any checks?
Can I ask VM to do any checks?

As I am dealing with some odd folks, I would like to have the line
checked regularly but would VirginMedia be prepared to do this?


It is illegal to gain access to another person's telephone under
Section 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
(RIPA). If you have good reason to suspect that your calls are
being intercepted, then contact the police.

There are no meaningful checks that you can do, or VM would do.
Other than visually inspect whatever bits of your telephone line
might be accessible to you.

If you are worried, but don't think that you have enough evidence
to go to the police, then use a mobile phone or internet phone.
Those are rather more difficult for an unspecified group of people
to intercept.

The scope of this thread was the suspected tapping of a landline
phone going to a flat. Generally extremely easy to do, needing
little expertise or expensive equipment. The suggestion was to use
a mobile phone - which, as the OP is in the uk, means a phone with
an encrypted digital data stream. Intercepting that would need a
great deal of expertise - it would be far easier to resort to other
methods, eg eavesdrop on the sound signals in the room(s).

Foxtrot <foxtrot@demo.invalid> wrote:
[...]

Let me give you some advice... but first you need also
to know what my qualifications are to provide that
advice: I worked in the telecommunications industry for
34 years, and retired 6 years ago. I have had the
(mis)fortune of setting up legal and illegal wiretaps.
I have also had the experience of having my work phone
tapped illegally. All of that of course was in the US,
hence I will not attempt to give you advice about
specifics or the legal status, because I simply don't
know how any of it would apply to you.

Here's what I have known since perhaps a month after I
began working in the industry: Do *NOT* *EVER* say
anything on a telephone that you cannot tolerate being
printed on the front page of the local newspaper the
next day.

Take that serious. It applies to your personal life.
It applies to your business. It applies if you are a
criminal, or if you are a judge.

If you cannot tolerate something being in the newspaper,
find a different way to communicate it to the people you
need to exchange that information with. DO NOT USE A
TELEPHONE.

"Foxtrot" <foxtrot@demo.invalid> wrote in message
news:Xns9A49A0904EF5601A4D@127.0.0.1...
I have never been a conspiracy theorist but I suspect that a
particular
group of people may try to tap my landline.

I am in the UK and access to my phone wires is quite easy because
I live in a block of flats. There are various oblong concrete
covers for the BT and VirginMedia lines to the flats.

Currently I use VirginMedia for phone service.

I wonder if a tap which juts picks up the signal modulation on a
line but does not interrupt it can be detected at all.

Can I perform any checks?
Can I ask VM to do any checks?

As I am dealing with some odd folks, I would like to have the line
checked regularly but would VirginMedia be prepared to do this?



If I felt the need of a secure phone system, I would set up a
secure private VoIP network.

At my end:
1) Set up an Asterisk server on my LAN;
2) Configure an IP phone to register with it;
3) Configure a secure VPN gateway to accept incoming connections.

At the other end(s):
1) Configure a VPN client box to establish a secure tunnel to my
LAN's VPN gateway;
2) Configure an IP phone to register with my asterisk box over the
VPN.

If you choose a good enough VPN implimentation, then I think it
would be pretty secure.

In article <6259tuF1v7i2vU1@mid.individual.net>,
Ivor Jones <ivor@thisaddressis.invalid> wrote:


"Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote in
message news:47BCE4EA.1D90B715@earthlink.net

[snip]

: : Or wait for one to turn up at a government auction.
: : I picked up a complete 911 phone logging system and all
: : the 10.5" reels of tape for next to nothing. I sold
: : the recorders to a company that owned thousands of pay
: : phones to use when there was a court ordered tap on one
: : of their phones.

Is that likely in the UK..?

No.

I have often wandered around "Government surplus" depots and there is
usually electronic test gear - old scopes, multimeters that kind of stuff,
spare parts for landrovers and small trucks, usually lots of clothing.
Tools, picks, shovels, empty ammunition boxes....but nothing quite like
that.

See http://www.anchorsupplies.com/

For a selection.

On Tue 19 Feb 2008 16:24:04, Palindrome <me9@privacy.net> wrote:

Foxtrot wrote:
I have never been a conspiracy theorist but I suspect that a
particular group of people may try to tap my landline.

I am in the UK and access to my phone wires is quite easy because
I live in a block of flats. There are various oblong concrete
covers for the BT and VirginMedia lines to the flats.

Currently I use VirginMedia for phone service.

I wonder if a tap which juts picks up the signal modulation on a
line but does not interrupt it can be detected at all.

Can I perform any checks?
Can I ask VM to do any checks?

As I am dealing with some odd folks, I would like to have the line
checked regularly but would VirginMedia be prepared to do this?

It is illegal to gain access to another person's telephone under
Section 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
(RIPA). If you have good reason to suspect that your calls are
being intercepted, then contact the police.

There are no meaningful checks that you can do, or VM would do.
Other than visually inspect whatever bits of your telephone line
might be accessible to you.

If you are worried, but don't think that you have enough evidence
to go to the police, then use a mobile phone or internet phone.
Those are rather more difficult for an unspecified group of people
to intercept.



But how can I detect it if it is being done (even if it is illegal)?

"Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote in
message news:47BCE4EA.1D90B715@earthlink.net

[snip]

: : Or wait for one to turn up at a government auction.
: : I picked up a complete 911 phone logging system and all
: : the 10.5" reels of tape for next to nothing. I sold
: : the recorders to a company that owned thousands of pay
: : phones to use when there was a court ordered tap on one
: : of their phones.

Is that likely in the UK..?

Ivor

Doesn't your government waste money by junking repairable equipment?
Ah, ours is way ahead of yours, we buy non working junk in the first

In message <47BDA04A.695BA780@earthlink.net>, Michael A. Terrell
mike.terrell@earthlink.net> writes
Doesn't your government waste money by junking repairable equipment?
Ah, ours is way ahead of yours, we buy non working junk in the first
place to save the effort of having to try and repair it later. It's much
more efficient that way.

Ivor Jones wrote:
"Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote in
message news:47BCE4EA.1D90B715@earthlink.net

[snip]

: : Or wait for one to turn up at a government auction.
: : I picked up a complete 911 phone logging system and all
: : the 10.5" reels of tape for next to nothing. I sold
: : the recorders to a company that owned thousands of pay
: : phones to use when there was a court ordered tap on one
: : of their phones.

Is that likely in the UK..?

Ivor


Doesn't your government waste money by junking repairable equipment?

I have never been a conspiracy theorist but I suspect that a
particular group of people may try to tap my landline.

I am in the UK and access to my phone wires is quite easy because I
live in a block of flats. There are various oblong concrete
covers for the BT and VirginMedia lines to the flats.

Currently I use VirginMedia for phone service.

I wonder if a tap which juts picks up the signal modulation on a
line but does not interrupt it can be detected at all.

Can I perform any checks?
Can I ask VM to do any checks?

As I am dealing with some odd folks, I would like to have the line
checked regularly but would VirginMedia be prepared to do this?

If someone can pull off a phone tap, then they are probably reading what you
write here. If I thought I was being tapped, I would have a phony
conversation with a partner about something of interest to the people I
thought tapped my line. Then I would look for a reaction to it. For
instance, if I thought it was the police, I might arrange a phony dope
transaction, complete with packages being exchanged.

You are putting a lot of trust in the cops not to actually "find" some