`CALL TRACE' OFFERS PROTECTION AGAINST HARASSING CALLS

When Jane D. received a harassing telephone call, she hung up and immediately punched *57 on her touch tone phone.

"Call Trace," a safety option which has been added to most residential and small-business phone lines in Missouri, went to work.

The telephone number, time and date of Jane D's last received call were recorded.

From that point, a number of things can happen:

-- Jane D. can file a formal complaint, and the information will be forwarded from Southwestern Bell to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

-- Southwestern Bell will contact the suspected harasser by letter at the customer's request if no formal complaint is lodged. The company will not share any identifying information with the customer or the suspected harasser.

More than 7,000 people receive harassing, annoying or threatening telephone calls each month, says Corynne Davis, a spokesperson for Southwestern Bell. The Cape Girardeau Police Department receives an average of about 95 reports of harassing phone calls every year. In addition to formal reports, officials say there are usually 30 to 40 incidents every year which are not formally reported.

In past years, persons receiving obscene or otherwise harassing phone calls had to contact the telephone company to have "tracer" put on a phone line.

The traces were set up free of charge.

"We have now added Call Trace to most residential and small-business phone lines in the state," said Davis.

Call Trace, explained Davis, is a safety option aimed at immediately identifying most harassing telephone callers, and can be activated by simply dialing *57 on a touch tone phone, or by dialing 1157 on a rotary phone.

Call Trace should be activated immediately following a harassing call, said Davis. The customer can then call Southwestern Bell to take further action.

There is no monthly fee for the Call Trace option, and the added capability will not create any increase in basic telephone service rates. Instead, said Davis, "customers will pay $6 each time Call Trace is activated."

The new service meets our customers needs for safety and control," said Southwestern Bell Regional President Lea Ann Champion. "Now that it is universally deployed and no longer requires a monthly subscription, we have made it easy for our customers to take advantage of this peace-of-mind feature."

Southwestern Bell does provide other services to help customers deal with harassing or threatening phone calls. The services that do carry a basic rate fee are:

-- Caller ID: This service provide an "electronic peephole" by allowing customers to know who is calling before they pick up the telephone. Caller ID shows the caller's name and phone number on a special display unit. Most display units also give the date and time of each call.

-- Call Blocker: This service protects customers by screening unwanted calls. With Call Blocker, customers have the option of rejected a call form a list of pre-selected numbers or preventing the last person who called from calling again.

These two services have cut down on harassing and unwanted calls.

Telephone company officials say a number of different kinds of calls can be labeled harassing or nuisance calls. Many are simple hang-up calls where the offender will wait for a victim to pick up the phone, then hang up.

Another is the "heavy breathing" type of call. Prank calls are another.

Persons who make harassing phone calls face fines ranging from $100 to $500. But if the crime is considered a Class A misdemeanor, the penalty can range from a day to one year in jail with a fine of up to $1,000.

Southwestern Bell officials offer some suggestions to protect customers from harassing calls:

-- Do not provide a name, phone number or other personal information to strangers or anonymous callers.

-- Do not attempt to outsmart harassing callers by engaging in lengthy phone conversations.

-- Do not provoke or threaten an unknown caller.

-- Keep a record of disturbing phone calls by writing down the date, time and content of each call.