the best way to deal with harrassment

[bobby atkin]

a friend of mine has been harrassed by phone calls and in person she is very upset about it and does not know the best course of action to take .Has anyone been in the same boat .I doubt if the police would take any action i dont know how to advise her.

[Hermia]

I would advise her to pop along to the police station. I expect they have dealt with this problem before and would know how to advise her. Even if they can't do anything practical at the moment at least it will all be on record.

[johnlambert]

Same thing happened to my ex wife, I bought her a personal panic alarm, one that gives off a high pitch sound. The next time Mr Perv called, she set off the alarm next to to mouthpiece, thus giving Mr Saddo Perv a monster headache.

[Drusilla]

Do get your friend to contact the police and the telephone line provider, who have a specialised unit to deal with malicious calls.
If she knows the people involved a solicitor should be able to help her take out an injunction against them.
These are the first steps I would advise, the relevent authorities will help her if these sanctions do not work.

[WendyS]

Please urge your friend to contact the police. I believe the law on stalking (which harrassing phone calls would seem to encompass) was amended a while back and I am sure that they will take her complaint seriously.

[mrbubbles]

Tell your friend to contact BT Nuisance calls - I used to work there and they can really help with this sort of thing - the police would probably recommend this in the first instance as they can then be given actual evidence to then take further

[rabbits]

I actually work for the police, and deal with this all the time. Basically, if the person calling is not witholding their number, a report can be put on for malicious calls, and they can be spoken to., If the number is witheld, no report will be taken. we used to then it was identified that it needs someone very very high, ie the Commissioner to authorise tracing the line. This would only be done for example in a case of murder or kidnapping. So if the number is witheld, we just file the details on a report, but no action is taken. If the calls she is getting are totally silent remember that a lot of call centres have been identified as behind this. Her best bet is to contact her phone provider, they can block thenumber calling her, so all other calls get through, but not the calls from that number. Hope this helps.

[Altosruleok]

I had a` lovely time a few years ago when it happened to me. As soon as the offending person rang, I said, "Oh, I'm so gald you rang - I've got a story for you." Then I started reading to him from a children's book (Mr Happy, I think it was) and wouldn't stop till he hung up. He tried a few more times after that but I kept the book by the phone and after a while he gave up. It was quite fun really

[milly143]

when an x was harrasing me in this way I would do my best to avoid answering it and would never ever respond. If she answers it not knowing it's the harrasing person then tell her to hang up straight away. Just like school bullies, they will get bored and stop if they don't get a reaction.

[bobby atkin]

Thank you for all your replys on this matter i have passed all information on to my friend. i am sure it will help.