TIL fake "555" phone numbers you see in movies and TV shows were once legitimate numbers that anyone could register, but Verizon would charge you $2,500 to use them - eviltoast

Looked this up after watching Better Call Saul and noticing a phone number in one of the episodes!

  • bfg9k@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Not sure why they would open these numbers up for access anyway, a lot of PABXes are programmed to recognize the 555 prefix as bogus and just drop the call without even attempting to dial it over national lines

  • delial@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    I’ve always hated 555 numbers, because they immediately dispel the illusion. They should just use invalid numbers that have an area code that starts with 1 or, better yet, an exchange code that starts with 1.