Phonebooks - eviltoast

I was talking to a coworker about these new phishing attacks that send your name and address and sometimes a picture of your house, and I was saying how creepy it is, and they told me that phonebooks were delivered to everyone and used to have like literally everyone in a city listed by last name with their phone number and address. Is that for real?

  • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    2 months ago

    You dialled by putting a finger in each number hole one at a time, dragging each one to the stop. When I was a kid our town’s phone numbers had just four digits, didn’t take long to dial.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.worldOP
      21·
      2 months ago

      Your number had what now?? Wow. Maybe you mean five? I was reading a Times article that they changed the four digit codes in 1930, but maybe that wasn’t standardized across the country. I’ve learned more about phone history than I ever expected to in my life. 🤣

      • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        2 months ago

        I’m from New Zealand originally. Small town in a small country. The time zone joke back then was, “If it’s 5pm in Sydney, it’s 1956 in Auckland.”