If you are worried that you have a phone tap problem, there are some ways to investigate the truth and try to find the tap. A physical phone tap is one that is actually present on your phone, or present somewhere along the phone wire. Usually someone somewhere has done something to allow their phone wires to share with yours, so that they can pick up their phone and listen to your conversation — an even possibly record it. There are also transmitter taps that may be somewhere in your home and listening in. For transmitter taps, a regular “bug sweep” ought to do the trick. But for a physical phone bug? You need to do a little hunting.

The first likely physical phone tap is one that is actually attached somewhere to the wires in your house. This means that you will need to follow the wires from your phone to the jacks and also from the TNI box outside your house all the way into your home. Many of these wires go through the basement, and so you should check down there. Because there is the possibility that the physical tap could be in the wall, you might find that tearing up the wall is your only option. However, it would be very difficult for a tap to be put there without your knowledge, unless it happened during building.

The TNI box mentioned above should also be checked. You can open it up and see if there is something unusual inside. If you want to double check the side of the box that says “restricted,” you will need an alan wrench. Luckily, these are available at most hardware stores. Thoroughly checking your TNI box is a good move, as this is a likely place for people to physically tap into your line without you noticing.

Of course, if you are subject to a government phone tap, it does not really matter. This is because the government uses the phone company's switch. There is nothing anywhere near your house to tap into. You can escape a government tap by using a prepaid cell phone (a regular cell phone can be tapped the same way as a conventional phone) or a public pay phone, but it your land line tapped, there is no detecting a government phone tap.

(c) 2005 Copyright