I have gotten calls from New York where the caller id says the phone number is 212-555-etc. How is htis possible? Is 555 no longer the sacred exchange? Although, I never understood why it wasn’t used in the first place!
Any explanations??? - Jinx
I seem to recall that the number for directory service (out here at least) was 602-555-1212.
Hmm.
Not sure why directory service would be calling you.
555-1212 is directory assistance, for any state, AFAIK, so long as it’s preceded by that state’s area code. Many other variations on 555- numbers will also lead you to directory assistance, (possibly before 1212 became a standard?) which might be why they’ve reserved it for that, and nothing else.
Oh, and geez, what would they use in movies if there was no 555? 
Dialing 555-xxxx connects you to directory assistance. Matters not whether you dial an area code prefix, or not.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_374a.html
Well, then “nothing else” is calling me! 212-555-2016! Yes, I know 555 is the exchange for long distance info, but what about local 555’s? Especially before the 10-digit local call, you couldn’t mix-up long distance info with a local call!
It’s a solicitor probably selling custom phone numbers, right?
- Jinx
I was going to make that claim, but I just tried dialing a random 555 number and got the standard “Your number cannot be completed as dialed” message.
I’m assuming you haven’t answered any of the calls as they came in? And I’ll further assume you’ve already tried dialing the number out of curiosity…
I did, and I was more led to the question - how does someone get that number to show up as their phone number when it clearly isn’t a valid number?
Wait. A WAG occurred to me, which probably won’t pan out to be anything, but I was thinking companies (like telemarketing firms) that have vast banks of phones that only make outgoing calls - maybe they get some of the 555 numbers as well, with a block on incoming calls…
Just a thought.
Maybe the call came through Directory Assistance? You know, when you call DA for a number and they offer to connect you for “no additional fee”.
As far as I know(and I do work for the phone company), 555 is still only used for directory assistance and other information services. You can apply for a 555 number, but it isn’t generally assigned. Here’s a page on 555 numbers from the North American Numbering Plan Association (NANPA).
Exchanges beginning with 55 and 57 were typically not used by the phone company because of the difficulty of coming up with the exchange names that were used in the old days–you know, like PEnnsylvania 6-5000. Well, those two keys do not have any vowels on them, and they don’t combine very well, so they were “reserved for radio telephone numbers” according to this 1955 chart of Ma Bell’s recommended exchange names, which comes from The Telephone EXchange Name Project site–a good site to view if you are interested in those old names.
Since the advent of all-number dialing, the only “sacred exchange”, as you put it, is 555, which has been reserved for directory assistance and phony Hollywood phone numbers. I downloaded the 555 number guidelines (there’s a link on that NANPA page I’ve linked to)–ugh!–and apparently, only the numbers 0100-0199 in the 555 exchange are truly bogus anymore. However, the numbers that are used are for information services–they aren’t just general home telephone numbers. My own company uses one in particular for operators to connect customers with National Directory Assistance (for all US area codes), as opposed to Local Directory Assistance, which is, of course, area code + 555-1212. Customers who direct dial are supposed to use 411.
Have you tried to call any of those numbers back? Are they valid? Telemarketers often spoof Caller ID with phony numbers, although they usually are not so obvious as 555–they’ll use, for example, an area code that has not been assigned to get around people who block unidentfied calls.
That just furthers my question… How does one spoof a caller id number? Seems like that would take quite a bit of work - especially to show up as 555, which as you say is pretty obvious. Having anonymous or out of area usually raises flags too so why not just let the true number show through - it would at least be less suspicious than 555-0216? Telemarketing lines usually don’t allow incoming calls anyway. But in any event - is spoofing definitely possible then? And if yes, then how? (I have no interest in doing it, of course, but it seems to me this is a pretty shady thing to be able to do.)
Why don’t you just call the number and find out who it is?
that state’s area code?? Where I come from, different areas of the city have their own area codes!
You’re right about that being the number for directory assistance. It’s worked that way for as long as I can remember.
It’s possible to forge a ‘from’ address on an email. Could something similar exist in the phone system?
Someone with more knowledge of the phone system will surely come along and correct me in the details, but there are actually two versions of Caller ID. There’s the normal residental caller ID, and then another service called ANI (Automatic Number Identification).
If you have a BRI (Basic Rate Interface, 2 phone channels plus a control channel) or PRI (I believe Primary Rate Interface, 24 phone channels (of which one is generally a control channel)), you can use the more powerful ANI service, providing you have the necessary hardware. This allows you to see who is actually calling (even if they use the block-caller-id star code) and also to spoof outbound caller ID.
ISPs, information services, 911, and so on use ANI for legitimate reasons.
I don’t know if outbound caller ID spoofing works against other people who have ANI. I believe it does not.
FYI - Area codes do not cross state boundaries.
Area codes are loosely based on population. Last time I checked, admittedly a couple of years ago, all of West Virginia was in the 304 area code.
Not sure where you come from but true enough, states can have several area codes, not aware of any cities that have multiple area codes though; as far as I’m aware, they do their best to keep it as simple as possible, and saying, “Well if they live in the western half of Danbury, you have to dial 203, but if they live in the eastern half of Danbury, you have to dial 860”, would be downright confusing. So I’m curious as to where you are - I’m assuming not in the states - and whether you’re confusing area code for something along the lines of a city code.
A long, long time ago when area codes were first being set up, all of them had a 0 or a 1 in the middle. If the area code was for the entire state, it had a zero (Like 602 for Arizona) and if it was only part of a state, it got a one (Like 215 for Philadelphia). That neat little rule was the first to bite the dust as populations grew. 602 was reduced to the Phoenix metropolitan area with the rest of the state getting reassigned. It was further reduced to Phoenix and west valley, then Phoenix-proper, then central Phoenix. Meanwhile, even the only zero or one in the middle rule was dropped, and area codes can be pretty well anything. Except for the toll-free 888s, I haven’t noticed any triple digits, though.
DD
Were there sufficient demand for new numbers in Danbury, it could well happen. The metro DC part of Northern Virginia has not only the traditional 703 code, but a recent 571 “overlay” code. Two codes sharing the same area. Doesn’t the proliferation of wireless phones sort of render moot the idea of geographically distinct area codes anyway?