
Not every U.S. telephone number beginning with 555 is fake - jgarmon
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/geek-trivia-strength-in-phone-numbers/
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peterwwillis
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_%28telephone_number%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_%28telephone_number%29)

Much more interesting (from a hacker's perspective) were all the telco
services provided using specific exchanges. For any given ILEC there was an
exchange used for services provided to customers or employees, including
everything from phone testing services and remote terminal access to business
customer information and voicemail. By calling these numbers you could find
some neat hidden services, and they were free from any phone. You can imagine
how bored kids at school with a payphone could discover quite a bit in their
spare time.

The DATU was my favorite. It was a secret lineman's number to test circuits,
which also enabled you to listen in on live lines. Using these numbers without
proper authorization meant jail time, but they had to catch you first :)
Ringback was also a fun way to pass the time. Dial the number and hang up, and
30 seconds later the phone would start ringing, and i'd watch who would go
answer it. Like I said, bored kids...

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larrys
As a kid I remember these numbers we would call up and hear a bunch of other
kids faintly having conversations in the background (and you could join in).
Was many years ago perhaps someone else could fill in the details if they
remember exactly.

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55555555
I have the phone number 5555 5555 in a capital city - it's unlisted, never
advertised, and still gets about 10 calls a day, mostly from babies and
drunks. If you do get a number like this, and want to use it, I would suggest
putting it behind an IVR and asking callers to press * to continue. We dump
all the non compliant users to a voicemail, which is entertaining to listen to
once in a while.

When we got the number first, it was not possible to call it from the major
mobile networks as they had blacklisted it as a test number!

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WestCoastJustin
Not only are they not fake, but you can have one today!

Callcentric is an "internet phone service", which has been around for at least
8+ years. They allow you to search for unused phone numbers [1] in various
area codes [2]. I searched for unused 555 numbers in the following area codes
(213, 310, 626, 818) all have some available! So, you could create an account,
and for something like $3/month, forward this 555 number to your existing
number [3].

[1]
[http://www.callcentric.com/did_lookup.php?type=check_by_us_n...](http://www.callcentric.com/did_lookup.php?type=check_by_us_number&prod_id=7&npa=213&nxx=555&sub_did.x=37&sub_did.y=8)

[2] [http://www.bennetyee.org/ucsd-
pages/area.html](http://www.bennetyee.org/ucsd-pages/area.html)

[3]
[http://www.callcentric.com/dids/phone_number_sale](http://www.callcentric.com/dids/phone_number_sale)

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oasisbob
Similar: not every 192.x.x.x IP address is in a private (RFC1918) network.

~~~
jmcqk6
This is interesting. Do you know who controls these public addresses? I know
in the past I've seen filtered connections to 192.x.x.x thinking that it would
get only internal connections then. The owners of these public addresses could
wreak havoc in some places.

~~~
oasisbob
There's a university with a 192.16x.x.x allocation who has written about the
confusion it's caused.

Nothing that special about it from a CIDR point of view -- but is rather
confusing to us humans when written as a dotted quad.

Github's GITHUB-NET4-1 is on 192.30.252.0/22, which is what reminded me of
this.

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cbhl
Heck, the University of Waterloo has 129.97.0.0/16, and I see people get
confused all the time between 192.168. (private) and 129. (publicly routed).

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sehrope
This isn't new at all. For as far back as I can remember you could dial
555-1212 from any area code and get directory assistance for that area code.
There's even a toll free 800 number (1-800-555-1212) which prompts you for the
city you'd like.

Haven't used it in a long time ( _seriously who would when you can search the
internet on your smartphone?_ ) but I think it's the same service as 411 minus
the $X/min fee (the 800 number version is free, I think the non-800 versions
might bill you).

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evacuationdrill
The area-555-1212 one actually is the most expensive at $3.50 according to
Wikipedia [1]. There is toll-free directory assistance (it doesn't say what
number) from AT&T, where the 800-number owner pays for any lookups.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555-1212](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555-1212)

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linker3000
UK numbers for drama...

[http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/numbering/guidance...](http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/numbering/guidance-
tele-no/numbers-for-drama)

~~~
user24
We use those as placeholder text on our registration forms.

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jboynyc
What's next? EXAMPLE.COM becomes an actual site?

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josefresco
In that same line of thinking, who gets the email @test.com?

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cmiles74
The people at test.com! They sounds a bit cranky.

    
    
      http://contactx.test.com/contactX/contact-spam.cfm

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dan1234
(Very OT) Wow, test.com actually have a patent for "Internet test-making"

[http://www.google.com/patents/US6513042](http://www.google.com/patents/US6513042)

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afreak
Slight correction needed to the article: Mexico left the NANP in the late 90s
and has adopted its own country code and dialing plan. It hasn't changed much
since but you do need to use 011 and whatever code it is now to dial there.

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yeukhon
Imagine your domain becomes your telephone number one day! Or your IP. Well,
you can already do that I supposed with VoIP

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obituary_latte
Can't wait!

"Hey Jim, give me a call at 2607 f0d0 1002 0051 0000 0000 0000 0004 when you
get a minute" :)

~~~
vezzy-fnord
Now all we need is a catchy jingle for Moss to sing along to.

