A while back there was a phone number circulating that people claimed would help you to determine whether or not your phone was tapped. Sounds great doesn’t it? I will give you the number below but before you rush off and call it let me add that this is probably not a reliable way to test your phone for bugs. In fact it may only work for land lines in the first place. But more than likely it does nothing at all. The more paranoid rumor is that if your cell phone isn’t already tapped then calling this number might lead to exactly that but I seriously doubt there is any truth to this idea.

The number in question is 202-543-9994. The instructions say that if your phone is not tapped that you will hear a long tone. If however there is another party listening in on or recording your call then you will hear breaks, skips, or other interruptions in the tone. Well I tried it with a couple different phones so far and my results were mixed. From a cell phone I did hear the tone with what I would describe as breaks or some sort of intermittent interference. From my home phone I didn’t hear a tone at all. Tomorrow I will call from a few more phones and see what happens.

While there may be some truth to the idea that this procedure can detect whether your phone has been tapped I am skeptical at this point. It just seems too easy. Fortunately I am not really concerned about my phones being tapped. At the same time knowing how easy it is to monitor cell phone activities these days without the owners knowledge makes you wonder. Is there something that you are involved in which might justify a third party taking the time to tap your cell phone? It would seem that something as simple as potential identity theft might lead to others being interested in acquiring your personal information by any means necessary.