Telephone archiver tapping device

Now comes the fun stuff - tapping! My chat-cord has two cables out, but as we’re only going to tap the phone we only want to connect one of them into the line in. If you would want this device to also play sounds back on the phone line, then you connect one to line in and the other to line out. As simple - and flexible - as that. Thanks to the capacitor and the extra resistor we put a very little load on the phone line. So the device itself becomes ‘invisible’, and as it’s permanently connected to the phone line it will not be heard coming on and off. I found this software called Atropos from CyTeG. The software is only $25 dollars for the one channel version, and there’s also 2 4 and 16 channel versions available. It has a LAN monitor version and a web monitor version, not something I’m going to use but still. The software is quiet straight forward. It listens to the channels and when the noise goes above the defined noise level then it’ll record the sound to a file. Simple as that. So when someone calls me what it actually records are first a set of DTMF tones for the caller id, then the ring tone (the shortcutted 90v AC signal which is not 0.7v AC) and then later on) the phone conversation.

I’m running this on an old Toshiba laptop with Windows 98. The laptop is kind of old, I think it’s like a 200Mhz or something with 32Mb, but it’s still stable and works fine. With the setup shown above it’s stable enough to hide under a cupboard or something and simply forget about it. The files are saved locally and if you need to retrieve anything then just VNC into it and save the session of interest as an MP3 on the network. Remember that as far as I know tapping a phone line, even if it is your own, is very illegal. For god’s sake - if even the police has problems getting it authorized then I don’t think that you can do it yourself. One way around it is to inform everyone before the conversation starts that it’s being recorded. You know like the message you can get when you call one of the big companies helpdesk “This call will be monitored for quality purposes” or something like that might get you off the hook. Still, the worst that can happen is if you have it connected and the missus finds out after a two hour chat with her sister. Wow! Then you’ll be in trouble!!

Here’s a sample on an incoming call: Atropos - 2005.10.21 10h09m09s - Ch=01.mp3.WAV

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12 Responses to “Telephone archiver tapping device”

1. MAKE: Blog Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 10:22

   HOW TO - Build a telephone archiver tapping device

   By using an old laptop, a home made chat-cord and some parts from an old telephone you can build a telephone tapping device. Add Atropos to the mix and you have yourself an telephone call archiving system that will save all incoming and outgoing calls….

2. Ben Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 19:22

   I know in at least some states (in the US), as long as one party is aware the phone conversation is being recorded (i.e. you), it is perfectly legal.

3. Eric Clark Says:
   November 11th, 2005 at 16:37

   Very nice site. Please keep updating it.

4. Sal Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 11:19

   This is a great idea, your a total genius. I cant wait to try it.

5. Jacob Wilson Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 17:00

   Your site is exactly the kind of sites which make the net surfing so fun.

6. Sporis Says:
   December 21st, 2005 at 9:44

   I have been able to build the project.
   He seems to work but when I try to he use with a softphone on the telephone from the other departs hear a very annoying rustle above all when he are not spoken.
   is it normal? how could he resolve?
   I have found un transformator in a old telephone.

7. Sporis Says:
   December 21st, 2005 at 22:04

   is it normal that does my taking work is it like microphone that speaker?
   The signal input and output in the same jack.

8. Robin Lightfoot Says:
   March 7th, 2006 at 8:53

   If you plug a tapping device on your phone and the light is red, does that mean it is being tapped, or does green? Isn’t it against the law, so could the police or sherrif’s dept. tap it without your knowledge?

9. MS Says:
   August 7th, 2006 at 15:20

   I am in Mexico (anything goes) and would like to use the phone tap device on some ill-mannered family.
   Can you please help me with how to go about this?

   Thanks,
   MS

10. TJG Says:
    September 2nd, 2006 at 18:08

    With this setup would hitting record on any sound program that is pointed at the line in work?
    Thanks

11. dhiraj Says:
    December 3rd, 2006 at 0:50

    crap

12. stump Says:
    March 5th, 2007 at 12:19

    kool,that’s it!!! this is crap isnt dhiraj…..

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