covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert 28-Aug-1989 2148) (08/29/89)
I've just received mail from someone who disputes my claim that Caller-ID isn't needed to stop harrassing calls. He feels that, for personal reasons, he can't go to the phone company or the police with the Call-Trace data. He'd like to just ignore calls from that number or send them to an answering machine. My reply to him follows: You don't need a display of the number to prevent the calls from reaching you. With the services offered in conjunction with Caller-ID (the ones that don't actually deliver the number to you, the ones I approve of) you can do just what you want. You can use Call-Block to cause the caller to get a recorded message saying that you are not available. You provide a list of numbers (and you can add the last number which called you to that list without knowing the number). You can use Selective Call-Forwarding to forward that caller to some other number. As with Call-Block, you provide a list of numbers or indicate that you want the last number added to the list. You can use this to do just what you want: send the call to a second line with an answering machine, a voice mail system, a conventional answering service, or even the police -- I once forwarded _all_ my calls to the local police for about two hours [with their permission! I told them I didn't expect them to take messages for me!], stopping my set of teenager-originated nuisance calls for months. No, you don't need the number of the person calling to be displayed to you. /john