Phone Call Recorder

prank call

A prank call, also known as a crank call or hoax call, is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. As with all practical jokes, there is a thin line between humor and harassment, and the person receiving the call is not likely to find it funny. Prank calls range from annoying hang-ups to false calls to emergency services or bomb threats. Prank calls that waste the time of emergency services are a criminal offense in most countries. One such hoax call occurred in Perth, Australia, on New Year's Eve 2002, when a drunken teenager called the new anti-terrorist hotline to report a bomb threat against the New Year's Eve Fireworks celebration. The threat was taken seriously, and the celebrations were about to be canceled, when police discovered that no such threat existed. The teen was arrested for deliberate false reporting. Some performers such as the Jerky Boys have produced albums of prank calls. The television show Crank Yankers is a series of real-life prank calls acted-out by puppets. The group Prank Machine had nearly 200 calls available entirely free to the public on their web site before it was closed as the result of legal action put forth by one Emilia Seldon. This was considered to be the first major action of its kind. Some of the more controversial calls can still be found through various sources, and the site has since reopened at a new location, although the content and format have been drastically altered, presumably due to legal constraints. Even very prominent people have fallen victim to prank callers, as for example Queen Elizabeth II, who was fooled by Canadian DJ Pierre Brassard posing as Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, asking her to record a speech in support of Canadian unity ahead of the 1995 Quebec referendum. Two other particularly famous examples of prank calls were made by the Miami-based radio station Radio El Zol. In one they telephoned Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and spoke to him, pretending to be Cuban president Fidel Castro. They later repeated the prank, except that they called Castro and pretended to be Chavez. Castro reacted to the prank by calling them bastards. El Zol was also fined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Tension was also caused in December 2005, when a Catholic Church-owned radio station in Spain played a prank on Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales. The hoaxer pretended to be Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, congratulating Morales on his election and saying things like, "I imagine the only one not to have called you was George Bush. I've been here two years and he still hasn't called me." The Bolivian government protested to Spain, and the real Zapatero called Morales and apologized. The Spanish government in turn summoned the papal nuncio in protest. In the United States of America, the Telecommunications Act makes some prank calls a felony with penalties of up to two years in prison and possible fines (depending on severity). However, such penalties are rarely carried out. As an example, the Chicago, Illinois shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller, after being criticized for the extensive use of prank calls on his radio show, broadcast the sarcastic remark: "Reality check for you people - Chicago's the murder capital of America. The police don't care if you get a prank call." Moreover, to make a prank call that falls afoul of the Telecommunication Act, 47 U.S.C. 223 (a)(1), the call must be done with the intent to "annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass." Arguably then, if the intent of the call is to amuse, confuse or simply to engage the call's recipient, there is no violation of the Telecommunications Act.

List of telephony terms:

3gpp - a-law - abbreviated dialing - adsl - ani - answering machine - apn - automatic ring back - b-channel - baud - bell 202 modem - bit rate - bonding - bri - busy signal - cable modem - call-progress tones - call accounting - call capture - call forwarding - call originator - call park - call pick-up - call transfer - call waiting - call waiting deluxe - called party - caller id - caller id spoofing - calling party - carrier wave - cbr - ccitt - cdma - cdma2000 - cellular repeater - celp - channel - clec - clock rate - codec - collect call - conference - conference call - crc - csd - d-channel - data compression - device driver - dial-up - dial - dial tone - direct-inward-dialing - direct distance dialing - distinctive ring - dnis - dsl - dsp - dtmf - dtr - duplex - echo cancellation - edge - extension - fax - fcc - fdma - fidonet - follow-me - g.711 - g.723.1 - g.723 - g.726 - g.lite - gprs - gps - gsm - h.323 - harmonic - headphones - hscsd - hspda - iad - idsn - internet call waiting - isp - ivr - jack plug - local loop - long distance - microcontroller - mobile phone - modem - modulation - mu-law - music-on-hold - night service - off-hook - on-hook - pabx - pager - payphone - pbx - pcm - pots - prank call - precise tone plan - pstn - pulse dialling - push to talk - ring modulation - ring tone - ringback - ringing signal - rj11 - roaming - serial communications - serial port - signal noise - sim - simplex - sit - sms - softmodem - switchboard operator - tapi - tdma - telecommunications - telemarketing - telephone - telephone call - telephone card - telephone company - telephone exchange - telephone line - telephone number - telephone numbering plan - telephone operator - telephone switchboard - telephony - tts - twisted pair - umts - v.32 - v.32bis - v.34 - v.42bis - vbr - vertical service code - voicemail - voip - vox - wap - wav - wi-fi - wimax - wire