Reach Out and Touch Yourself
While everybody’s excited about the new “.xxx” Internet red-light district soon to flood a series of glandular tubes near you, an enterprising company has been diddling Ma Bell:
Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers than any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.
And many, if not most, of those 1.7 million numbers appear to be used for one thing: redirecting callers to a phone-sex service.
We can’t help but consider the news adorably quaint: With free video online to satisfy every exquisitely perverted urge imaginable, who the hell spends money on phone sex anymore?
Porn Company Is Amassing 1-800 Numbers [AP/ABC, via TPM]
Exactly. Being the king of buggy whips doesn’t mean anything. Of course, they charging for wrong numbers.
@ManchuCandidate: A shirt that said “King of Buggy Whips” would be cool.
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