The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Police helpline to stop obscene calls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 26, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Police helpline to stop obscene calls

G. Anand

More mobile phone users are becoming targets of abusive and threatening calls

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City police are planning to set up a helpline to assist citizens beleaguered by unwanted telephone calls and text messages.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Harshita Attaluri said an increasing number of mobile phone users in the city, particularly women, are becoming victims of abusive, obscene, threatening and annoying calls from anonymous persons using prepaid cards.

Ms. Harshita said every month she received at least 30 complaints of this nature from mobile phone and fixed landline users. The number of petitions reflected just a fraction of the actual scale of the ongoing mischief. It was saddening that most victims preferred to suffer the misbehaviour in silence than approach the police, she said. Most of the women complainants had to endure vulgar language and sexually explicit comments.

A considerable number of victims of abusive calls were men, including police and Fire department officials. Few complainants said anonymous callers had threatened them with physical assault.

A woman lawyer said she received persistent calls at odd hours on her mobile phone for nearly two weeks. The bothersome caller had taken a fancy for the ring back tone she had set on her mobile. "It was very annoying and stressful. He would call from different numbers till I warned him of police action," she said. In another case, a journalist was beset by frustrating "non-speech or silent calls" on his fixed telephone line at home. The calls, often scary for womenfolk at home, stopped when he made it public that he had installed a caller identification system.

Another police official said pranksters often selected mobile phone numbers of their victims at random. He said it was best not to reveal personal details to anonymous callers, including those who claim that they are representing "telemarketing" companies, private banks or credit card firms. There have been instances of mischief-makers mimicking the voices of women to throw their victims off-guard. A house wife, who received scores of unsolicited calls on her mobile phone, later learned to her dismay her telephone number had been posted anonymously on a dating website.

He said those who receive unwanted calls should write down the date, time and duration of the call along with the caller's number. It would be ideal to take note of the accent of the caller and also background noise, if any.

The DCP said action would be taken against vendors who sell prepaid mobile telephone calls without accurately verifying the identity of the buyer. The vendors are expected to keep a record of the identification documents furnished by the buyer. The public could address complaints directly to her at the Crime Stopper Number, 1090 or at her office, 0471-2321676.

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