Cell phone call recording

[copiche]

Hey guys.
My wife has a friend that unfortunately she is getting harrassed verbally by her ex-husband with phone calls and she does not know anything about technology.
Is there anything outhere that can record incoming phone calls on cell phones? She uses Metro PCS.

Thanks

[JSB1]

I hope Adam weighs in on this... because I think it is illegal (in the US) to record someone without their knowlede...

Why not just block the number from incoming on the phone?

JSB

[canadateck]

You should have the Call records on file with the "Cell Phone Company" Get those and call the Police.

[Guest]

Let it go to voicemail.If this guy is an ass,he will leave harassing messages. That is legal.Even if she recorded threats illegally,it is likely there would be no recourse on his part. "I know I said I was going to kill her,but she recorded that message illegally".Yeah,that will hold up in court.

[adam]

First off as to the technical means, why not just set it to speaker and then use any kind of external recorder? I imagine you could also find some sort of cable that would plug into the headphone jack of the phone and then run that to the line in connector of any recording device. Probably would need a connector or two but still should be cheap.

As to the legalities, you need to be careful. Under Federal law it is illegal to record someone unless you either have their consent or you fall within the business exception (you are business monitoring lines as they are used for business purposes). If you illegally record someone you could be subject to criminal penalty and the recording will be inadmissible against that individual anyway.

Read here for more info: http://www.callcorder.com/phone-recording-law-america.htm#The%20US%20Federal%20Law

Basically you have to look to your state's law, and his state if you are calling interstate, and see if there is any way to establish consent. In many states leaving a message on any kind of formal messaging service is sufficient as implied consent, so you can use that message. Otherwise you need his express consent and its not likely he's going to threaten her after she informs him that he is "being recorded and that anything he says can be used against him in a court of law."

But if she is really concerned tell her to just go to the police and get a restraining order to keep him from calling her. If he continues all she has to do is use her phone bill (I think that shows incoming calls doesn't it?) or get a list of call activity from her cell company. Even without any recording she can still prove that he is in violation of the restraining order. If necessary, she can get a court order to allow her to record the messages any way she wants and then use that to file harrasment or terrorism charges. (most states simply call threats terrorism, it has nothing to do with the federal definition of terrorism which is threatening the government.)

[thecoalman]

Tell him to speak into this (adapter cord sold seperately):

[copiche]

Great advise guys thanks.
The thing is that she still needs to speak to this "ahole" given that they share 2 daughters. So in order for him to pick them up, and stuff, she needs to communicate still with this guy, unfortunately.
I noticed from Adam's post, in Florida it is ilegal to record someone's conversation w/o their consent, to make things worse.
Regards

[canadateck]

If you have to tell him"This Call is being recorded",I think HE would most likley say somthing like.

:I dont give a shit.

I'm sure it would upset him more.

My brother had to go through all this with his ExWife. She was the one calling all the time.He had to set up Visits with a Friend to drop them off or Pick them up(The Kids).

[ZAPPER]

I ain't no expert, but I would say that she needs to talk to the police and get that part down on paper just to start with. What the state has set up as far as providing her with options should start from there. (And I doubt that the cops are going to really get involved) While I am venturing to say that this probably won't lead to anything worse, there is the possibility and it needs to be addressed. Normally I would just suggest feeding the dude to the gators but time has shown me that domestic affairs are seldom as one sided as people tell you they are. I hate being the bad guy here, but there is not much you can do to make other peoples problems go away. Sorry.

[Supreme2k]

I was going to say a bit of what zapper said.

Your wife's friend may be nice, or she could be a psycho. I've seen way too many of those "first strike" scenarios go bad. She may just be bitter about the custody issues and interpret things to the point of "harrassment".

She could simply inform him that he is being recorded and go with that (after informing the proper authorities).

The main thing is that, before the wire-tapping, she needs to get some court ordered mediation, since this is a custody issue and not some random stalker or crank-caller.