Dial M for malice

Obscene, malicious and nuisance is what they are called; disturbing, frightening and annoying are their effects on the victims.

Last week, a Co Mayo man was given a three-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of making 4,000 obscene and abusive calls. Some 18,000 complaints are made every year to Eircom's malicious calls bureau, which was set up in 1998. However, barely a handful of such calls has been reported to the Garda over the past two years. In 1999, only one case came before the courts.

Garda Press Office spokesman Ronan Farrelly says he believes the number of cases reported could be so low because "a lot of people solve it before it comes as far as the guards. I presume a lot of them just change their number."

Eircom spokeswoman Nuala Buttner says the number of complaints received is fairly consistent. The idea behind setting up the malicious calls bureau was to speed up the response to, and the resolution of, these problems.

"For a lot of customers that come to the bureau all they need to do is get their number changed, which we do free and immediately in this situation. Obviously, that gets rid of the problem for a lot of people.

"For people who have a serious problem with a malicious caller and don't want to change their number, it's up to them to decide if they want to bring the Garda into it. We are not involved in the criminal proceedings. "The victim needs to report it to the guards, to get the wheels in motion and we would then get a trace request from the guards which we would act on and pass back the results to the guards."

Farrelly says that if there is a problem and someone is receiving malicious calls, gardai can monitor the line with the permission of the customer to see where the calls are coming from. "It is an offence to use telephone lines to make threats or put somebody in fear," he adds.

The Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1926, Section 11, covers the sending of any message which is indecent, obscene or offensive or anything which is a false or misleading signal of distress. The penalty for summary conviction in the District Court is a £1,000 fine and/or six months' imprisonment. Conviction on indictment, in the higher courts, is £20,000 and or up to 12 months' imprisonment.

Farrelly advises victims not to engage in conversation. They should hang up and take note of the dates and time of the call. He recommends that the victims screen calls with an answering machine if the problem is with a landline.

According to Farrelly, malicious telephone calls overlap into the area of stalking, which would be a separate offence. Stalking, he says, is not just following somebody physically. Ringing them up or sending them many e-mails would also be considered stalking.

In the past, with older technology, calls could not be traced unless they were longer than a minute or two. Nowadays, all calls are logged and computerised.

According to Sarah Dempsey, spokeswoman for Esat Digifone: dealing with the problem of malicious calls is something that is absolutely out of our remit." However, Esat Digifone can change a number for a harassed customer.

There are lots of ways to avoid giving out a mobile phone number - as those who want to protect themselves from unwanted phonecalls often wish to do. If they buy a prepaid phone, such as a Speakeasy or Ready to Go, they do not have to register their name. Mobile customers may opt not to register with directory inquiries and many choose to block their caller ID so their phone number is not revealed to the people they call. Ironically, these are the same methods a nuisance phone caller may use to protect his or her identity.

Under data protection legislation, any caller-ID system has to allow the caller to withhold their number at any stage, or to opt out altogether so their number never goes through.