Concern for safety; what can someone learn from my phone number?

Oboro

I've been receiving threatening voicemails from someone whose identity I do not know and to whom my identity should be unknown. Long story short, there may or may not have been illicit activity between us that required phone numbers be exchanged and he is, in the aftermath, very upset. He's left a message a day, give or take one or two, since the event. He has not said anything that would suggest he has learned anything about my person, but the vagueness and persistence of the messages -- to sum it up -- has me scared shitless.

There's just something really scary about getting a message a week after the fact which is just, "You know who it is. I don't think this is funny. You won't think this is funny either," you know? There's something really scary there.

It's a cell phone number registered to a region 700 miles away from my present location. I don't think there's any real danger of him using the number to find my name and then tracking me down here, but I'm paranoid. Would your Average John be able to access this information?

RNEMESiS42

Illicit activity? Did you screw this dude mailing him weed and now he wants to beat your ass or something?

Oboro

RNEMESiS42 wrote: »

Illicit activity? Did you screw this dude mailing him weed and now he wants to beat your ass or something?

I don't really think answering this is necessary to calm my nerves but if you really want to push the issue there's a fairly-subtle clue in the post that's the closest I'll come to saying what the activity in question was.

Zetx

Google has a "Phonebook" thing. Not sure how it gets its data (most numbers I try don't work), but that would list your address. But that might just be for landlines and all.

Szechuanosaurus

If you cell phone is registered to an address 700 miles away then it's perfectly possible that he can get that information. I'm sure the cell networks sell their client info out to third parties, so there's probably somewhere where at a push he could buy the name and address the cell number is registered too. It depends what other information he can find out from there. It also depends on how motivated he is to do this.

Beyond that, he's unlikely to have the resources to hack into the cell networks and locate you from triangulation. Unless by illicit you mean you've been having gay phone sex with a high ranking FBI agent or you sold a crate load of Nerf guns to a Russian arms dealer

aesir

He cant find out where you live from your phone number, assuming all he has is your phone number and assuming you haven't listed your phone number anywhere on the net. Google your number and see.

Erios

No matter what you did, if it appears he has learned enough about you to target your physical person, cave and get to the cops. It's what they are there for. Plus, if you did what I think you did from the "clue," and it was illegal, then the penalty is not particularly severe, especially if it's your first offense. Of course, if there is no crime, then this is a no brainer. The one issue with going to the cops and getting a restraining order is that he may then know of your address (hard to stay away from a place if you don't know what it is), but if he's threatening you, there really isn't a better recourse than the law.

As far as the availability of your info, google your number and see what comes up.

EclecticGroove

aesir wrote: »

He cant find out where you live from your phone number, assuming all he has is your phone number and assuming you haven't listed your phone number anywhere on the net. Google your number and see.

It is incorrect to say he "can't find out where you live from your phone number". It may be difficult, especially if it's an unlisted and rarely used land line, or a cell phone that hasn't been advertised around, it just depends how much time/money someone wants to spend to obtain the information.

Basically, it's a utility service that directly ties into where you are, which means someone, somewhere knows where you are when you use it.

Normally this isn't a huge deal, since the amount of money and/or time you would need to track it down (provided you/someone hasn't listed it online somewhere) is not worth anyone's time.
Now, I have no idea what you did, or to who, and I'm not going to ask or bother playing "guess the innuendo" with your OP, but if you did something bad enough to the wrong person, then that changes the playing field quite a bit.

If you honestly perceive this as a threat, then you call the cops to investigate it. Save the messages, log all threats, etc and hand it over. If you're afraid of you getting in trouble then weigh whatever fault you had against the likely actions this guy would take and how much harder it will be for the police to do anything without your help.

Gnome-Interruptus

Essentially, this purposed illicit activity, can it be traced back to you? I mean, you snitch him to the cops for death threats, can he snitch you back for the illicit activity? Can the cops build a solid case against you for said illicit activity?

If the cops cant build a case against you, just go to them and say you think someone has a wrong number and has been leaving you death threats, and want a restraining order etc. Chances are he wont go to jail, but having the cops show up at his door lets him know your serious about him stopping, and he probably will.
Alternately, you can have his number blocked by your phone company, it costs some money on the bill, and is easily circumvented by payphones.

Edit: Googling your own number is also a good suggestion, I've done that in the past for unknown phone numbers that show up on my call display that dont leave a message.

Sarcastro

In theory? All you need is a friend who works for the cell phone company your plan is under; you can indeed tell which company that is by checking the NXX of your cell phone number- the 555 in 708-555-2679.

So if he has low friends in medium wage places, this can be done quite easily. Unlikely that they would know this tho, unless they read The Internetz.

Doc

How much of a pain in the ass would it be to have your number changed?

DasUberEdward

I think the large question you should ask yourself is, does this guy have the resources to harm me?

You should know that by the activity that links the two of you. If it cost this guy say...80 bucks there's a good chance the considerable distance and effort it takes to find you will keep you safe. However if you cost this guy 8,000 dollars you may want to be greatly concerned. From a criminal perspective, it'd be very silly to contact you for a number of days leaving clear evidence of intent to do harm to you. If something was going to happen i'm relatively sure you would not have had such warnings without options to rectify the problem that has been caused.

With that in mind, he could be genuinely insane and unaware of his follies with a steadfast determination to find you. Use whatever information you know about him and his social network to determine what category you are dealing with here.

I guess what i'm trying to say is that a criminal with the know how and resources to harm you from such a great distance wouldn't be texting you daily.

(Edit: Remember, this guy could be genuinely insane with a really serious vendetta. Maybe he has nothing to lose. Unfortunately at this point your location should be considered pretty much compromised and taking steps with law enforcement would not be a bad idea.)

Oboro

Thanks for the insight all, with replies taken together with what I've gotten in PMs from people I've decided to go ahead and change my number ASAP because at the least it'll stop him from clogging my inbox with frightening messages. He hasn't revealed anything in the messages that suggest he's done any research or what-all, so unless something comes up to suggest he actually has been putting puzzle pieces together in some basement laboratory, I'm going to be content with this and not contact the police.

Thanks again, all.