The Basics of Phone Bugging Devices

One of the spying devices that is most feared by terrorists or criminals is the telephone bug equipment, or even worse, a cell phone bug. If they are victims of these electronic tools, then they can count their days as outlaws. Sooner or later, they will fall into the hands of justice. Although law has been using phone bugging devices for a long time, they have become more sophisticated, and are able to perform in ways that were only dreamt about in the science fiction books of the sixties or seventies.


What Are Phone Bugs?

A phone bug is an electronic device that is installed near a phone. Once it is placed, the private conversation of any user can be picked by an outsider. This covert listening device is commonly composed by a mini radio transmitter and a microphone.

The microphone is the one in charge of capturing the conversation, converting the sound into an electronic signal that is passed to the radio transmitter. Once the radio transmitter has it, it sends it wirelessly to an external receiver.


How Should You Use A Phone Bug?

Using telephone bugging devices is also known as telephone tapping. You should know that according to the US law, there are some restrictions for using a phone bug. If you plan to use one, and don’t want to find yourself a victim of demand, find out the laws regarding this theme.

If everything is ok with the law, then you can continue with your plans. First of all, the installation depends on what kind of phone bug you bought. For instance, there is the telephone bug that is hidden inside the coil connector. You only need to remove the old wire and place the new one.

For other kind of phone taps, bugs, or any way you want to call them, you need to open the receiver, place the bug inside, and close it again. No one will know that the phone has been altered. Depending on which model you buy, don’t worry about the installation, they come with adequate instructions on how to use it.


What Are Cell Phone Bugs?

A cell phone bug follows the same principle of a standard phone bug. The main difference is that it was designed for picking up conversations from a mobile phone. Nowadays, portable telephones have created a whole new market of users, who depend on this apparatus for their business and personal communications. It isn’t strange then, to find that cell phones can also be victims of telephone tapping.


Types of Cell Phone Bug Devices

There are two kinds of cell phone bugs. The first one is a standard bug, installed inside the phone. The second kind of mobile phone bugs are cell phone scanners. These devices search the airwaves for cellular signals. Once they have detected one, the third party will be able to tap into the conversation.


Types of Phone Bugging Devices

If you want to buy a telephone listening bugging device, you have four options to choose from. Each one of them is designed for determined uses and budgets:

Acoustical Phone Bugs

These are the cheapest of phone bugs. They don’t require any kind of sophisticated technological device. They are something as simple as hearing through a plastic tube or through an orifice in the wall. Although they aren’t phone bugs per se, there are times when they accomplish their objective.

RF Phone Bugs

These are the most common type of bugs. They are called RF because they transmit the captured conversation through radio frequency. Their main advantage is that they are relatively inexpensive and hard to trace. If someone finds the bug, it will be almost impossible to know who is receiving the transmission. Be careful, these devices were not designed as a long range telephone bug, so don’t expect to pick the signal from far away.

Ultrasonic Phone Bugs

These kinds of bugs are more sophisticated than the classic RF bugs. They are capable of reading the audio waves. The conversation is converted into an ultrasonic wave and transmitted to a receiver. Once it reaches its destination, it is converted back into sound waves so that it can be heard. It is even harder to trace than a RF phone bug, but it is also more expensive.

Optical Bugs

Optical bugs are not very popular among bug users since they have two clear disadvantages if compared to other type of bugs: they are expensive and difficult to use. So, why do they exist? If they are properly used by an expert, they can prove to be extremely useful. The optical bug can transform sound and data (especially useful for voice over IP phone calls) into pulsating beams of light. Once the receiver captures the light, it is transformed again into its original form.

As you can see, phone bugging devices have also benefited from the advances of electronics. Almost undetectable and terribly efficient, these devices execute their task with efficiency. And it doesn’t matter if you use a mobile phone; you may be the prey of a sophisticated cell phone bug.