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Nowadays, you won’t find that many 1-800 numbers are kid friendly.
Why, you ask? Dial one and you might just get a message like this on the other end:
“We both have big appetites for sex,” they purr. “Pinch us and poke us. Spank us and tease us. We love it all. … Enter your credit card number now.”
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For more than 13 years, a Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has discretely gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, administering most of them as phone-sex services, an Associated Press investigation reports. That’s nearly 1.7 million numbers with offers for dirty talk.
Too much naughty? Perhaps.
The company has made some common nouns and words – Chicago, Cadillac, Worship, Cameras, Metallica – into naughty numbers. Even worse, phone lines that were once used for questions and counsel about AIDS and safe sex are now directed to the unexpected erotic messages.
The lines seem to be operated by National A-1 Advertising, a company that shares an office building and has common ownership with PrimeTel.
(More on TIME.com: How to fix 911)
Pillow talk with a random stranger may not be your thing, but there has to be a captive audience somewhere out there, right? Well, enticing callers who have reached the wrong number is apparently a big new industry.
“I guess enough people go for it that it makes business sense,” said Aelea Christofferson, president of ATL Communications, another company that specializes in toll-free services.
If you’re thinking this must cross some illegal territory, think again. Promoting adult entertainment, especially when callers are required to knowingly offer up their credit card info, isn’t quite criminal activity.
(More on TIME.com: Are colleges doing enough to combat sexual violence?)
Ok fine, so it’s not illegal, but it’s sketchy indeed.
(via Associated Press)