1 - 800 Spank Me

Porn company buys up a quarter of 1-800 numbers

NEW YORK - "For years, teenagers across the U.S. could call a toll-free hotline if they had embarrassing questions about AIDS and safe sex. Dial the same number now and you get a recording of giggling women offering to talk dirty to you.

"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."

Those naughty misdials, and countless others like them, appear to be no accident.

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."

Hands down, the best depiction of phone sex idiocy is by Jennifer Jason Leigh in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts". I really, really wanted to find that scene but apparently it's not available. The movie is a great watch anyway. Or call up some 800 number and get your ATM card ready.