I am sure you are most likely not aware that anyone with the proper equipment can listen to any conversation of yours when you use your cellular or cordless phone. Someone can listen as you give out your social security number, credit card number, pin, or bank account. The information can then be used to access those accounts without your consent or knowledge. The same problem can even occur if you use a digital phone or when you enter the numbers using the keypad. Each number on the keypad has a distinct tone or frequency. If you know the tone, you know the number. Some people have trained themselves to listen and recognize the different tones. The equipment can be purchased easily at Radio Shack®,, through mail order catalogs, or on the Internet for only a few hundred dollars.

     On occasion, someone with a cordless phone (particularly on analog phone) using the same frequency as your cordless phone can listen to your conversation without you knowing. The signals can be crossed and can be picked up within a hundred feet or so from your base unit. On some occasions my phone line signal crossed with someone else’s accidentally allowing me the opportunity to listen to the other person’s conversation without their knowing. I was even able to listen even after they hung up the phone, picked up again, and dialed another number.

     The solution to the problem is to use a regular landline phone for secure transactions. Considering the security and the cheap cost for purchasing a non-cordless phone, every home should have a non-cordless phone. Another benefit for non-cordless phones is that when a power outage occurs the cordless phones would be rendered useless while a non-cordless phone would continue to function since the power for the signal is received from the telephone central office responsible for routing the call.


Return to Miscellaneous Topics.