Prank calls...It’s not that funny

Prank calls…It’s not that funny

Mar 29, 2016 News

It comes in the middle of the night, when your bones are tired and your mind is hazy. Prank calls are not to be taken lightly.
Every person who owns a phone can agree that prank calls can be annoying and sometimes just downright disrespectful.
It doesn’t matter if you know the person or not. The thought of someone trying to make a fool of you is enough to make you want to pop a vessel.
However, prank calls in Guyana have surely evolved over the years; from anonymous callers making animal sounds and cruel jokes to something dark and repulsive.
Indeed, pranksters have also evolved; evolved into molesters; molesters that awaken you in the middle of the night requesting acts too grimy to mention for publication; molesters that, not just disturb you from your slumber, but the molesters that stain whatever you would have deemed as clean – this is a worldwide phenomenon.
The Unknown, Private Caller
Most pranksters hide their caller’s ID, so the logical thing to do is just to ignore private calls but if you’re a businessman, journalist, doctor, police officer etc. – you will have to press that green button sometime or the other.
In Guyana, it seems to have no bounds. Children, who are granted the opportunity to possess a phone just to keep in touch with their loved ones when they go to school, sometimes fall prey to pranksters.
What is their aim? What do these pranksters hope to achieve? Is it just for the thrill? Or is there something psychologically wrong with these people?
How do we put a lid on it?
According to a source employed at one of Guyana’s leading telephone service providers, calls are recorded daily and stored into a database.
However, these calls are not stored for long periods of time so the best solution is to strike whilst the iron is hot.
If one should be abused by a caller, the victim is required to make a formal complaint at the nearest police station. The police then provide the complainant with a document which is then taken and displayed to the representatives of the service. The matter is then further investigated.
There is also another approach, where the complainant can write to the service provider requesting the call information.
While the above mentioned processes would be seen as remedies, it can also be lengthy.
With technology rapidly advancing throughout the globe, several services are available for download from the many application stores (app stores) online. While some are free of cost, others require some sort of exchange.
This would be seen as the best solution since some apps have been designed to “unhide the caller”, provides caller’s location and sometimes, the name of the caller the phone would have been registered to.
But there is a catch, some phones are not always compatible with these applications and those that are, are often expensive.
Some service providers also offer a “show caller” feature. If a person calls you and the number pops up as Unknown or Private, the number is revealed. This feature is available for a few added dollars of course.
Prank Calls to emergency hotlines
Over the years, police ranks stationed at the various outposts throughout the country have become victims of severe abuse and pranks. One can remember the many advertisements aired on television and the many messages being circulated asking citizens not to indulge in prank 911 calls.
Officers managing calls can also relate to instances where a breathless caller would contact the 911 hotline, officers would be deployed only to return sometime later with confused looks on their faces.
A few years ago, the Government of Guyana requested that service providers equip themselves with the necessary devices to wiretap calls. It is still unclear if all these service providers have set such systems in place.
The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has also benefitted with the installation of these systems. The GPF were able to get a lead on some cases where telephones would have been the chosen mode in carrying out crimes.

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