Getting a vanity phone number with four consecutive digits(blog.jonlu.ca)
blog.jonlu.ca
Getting a vanity phone number with four consecutive digits
https://blog.jonlu.ca/posts/verizon-rare-numbers
134 comments
At work the telecom guy was proud of the telephone number he gave me ("very easy to remember!" he said). Well, it turns out it was one digit off of the local Alcoholics Anonymous help line. I had digit "1" and AA had "7". I got a lot of drunken phone calls and voice messages. All depressing since they were asking for help. Figured it out after a few calls, but from now on I'll take the ugly telephone numbers.
Had the same case when local (although quite large) bus terminal helpline had similar number.
Calls like "where the heck is my bus?" or "how can get to xxx" at 2am weren't so rare until I changed the number
Calls like "where the heck is my bus?" or "how can get to xxx" at 2am weren't so rare until I changed the number
Many years ago I worked at a pizza place. The town I was in had numbers in two different exchanges (the three digits between the area code and the final four digits in US numbers). Pretend the pizza place had the number 123-4567. The other exchange in that town was 321.
Naturally, the number 321-4567 just got some person's house. That person set up their answering machine message to say that "Due to a rash of prank calls, we are no longer accepting phone orders" without actually specifying who isn't accepting phone orders. Naturally people would show up in person highly confused about this.
Naturally, the number 321-4567 just got some person's house. That person set up their answering machine message to say that "Due to a rash of prank calls, we are no longer accepting phone orders" without actually specifying who isn't accepting phone orders. Naturally people would show up in person highly confused about this.
In China, that would be the unluckiest phone number ever. My 30 story Beijing apartment building lacked floors 4, 14, and 24 due to superstition about 4 meaning death.
That sounds absurd. I can't believe a civilized society would exclude so many floors! In the US where we are completely reasonable and rational we only exclude the 13th floor. I used to work on the "14th floor" (actually floor 13) and I thought this was hilarious.
In Thailand every 13th floor is named 12A. They’re not fooling anyone.
It might also be a trick on the building owner to make their building look taller. They also exclude the 13th, so that’s a total of 4 floors excluded, but it is only 30 stories, so they get to exclude 34 as well so the top floor is 35.
In China what happens on the 4th floor stays on the 4th floor.
I feel like if I was superstitious about floor numbers I'd still not want to live on the 4th/14th/24th floor regardless of what they called it. It's still the 4th/14th/24th floor.
Apparently it's pretty common for tall buildings in NYC to skip a few floors so that the top floors have higher numbers. I was grateful for this when my friend's building's power was out and I had to take the stairs to the 42nd floor.
That's not that bad. There is a building in HK with no floors at all with 4 in them. So it is missing 4, 14, 24, 34, 40-49, 54, ...
And its not that four meaning death. In Cantonese, the word for "four" sounds very close to the word for "death"
And its not that four meaning death. In Cantonese, the word for "four" sounds very close to the word for "death"
Awesome. Imagine telling folks that calls to you had better be important enough to warrant risking death!
A Harvest Moon game on the GBA would softlock if you interacted with the clock or something at 4:44.
I had the same problem. Same type of 07 number as you - all consecutive. It was too much hassle. Also, with that number and my 07969696969 number that I thought was hilarious, I just had infinity prank calls all day, and worst of all, all night...
This is why the idea of 2FA using a mobile number is so absurd.
It still requires more effort to move a phone number to a new SIM than to convince an airline to reset your password.
I hate that SMS is so much relied on (in particular as it fails so bad in travel settings), but I think we're stuck with it for a long time before we get alternative that work at least half as much for standard people that don't buy into ecosystems.
I hate that SMS is so much relied on (in particular as it fails so bad in travel settings), but I think we're stuck with it for a long time before we get alternative that work at least half as much for standard people that don't buy into ecosystems.
it still prevents drive by attacks. without 2fa, having accounts is basically free (take a list of leaked passwords, and try them on 20 sites). with 2fa, it will probably take 15-30 minutes per account of relatively adept social engineering. it won't stop a targeted attack, but it will prevent 95%
The GP is talking about SMS for 2fa. Much better to use an app like Google Authenticator or a secure token which doesn't rely on 3rd parties (mobile phone companies) being secure.
We all agree that 2fa is good, that is a moot point.
We all agree that 2fa is good, that is a moot point.
oh yeah, authenticator apps and hardware keys are way better than sms, but I worry a little about demonizing sms 2fa too much since plenty of (especially older) people don't have smart phones, and are never going to use a hardware key. since any 2fa is a huge step up, I think sms based 2fa is likely good to promote in tandem with the better methods. (that said, it drives me insane that most banks only offer sms based 2fa. that should be illegal)
Do NOT use Google Authenticator unless every account you use it for has an alternate MFA option (backup codes, etc) that you've confirmed work. It does not sync to your Google account and there is no way to back it up (even manually). The moment your phone gets stolen, breaks or dropped in a river, you will learn a very quick lesson about MFA backups/alternates.
> Four or five times a year my phone would just stop working because someone had "persuaded" a call-centre worker at my provider to assign the number to a new SIM they could sell on eBay
And they were unable to add a note to that account to the effect of "don't do X under any circumstances"?
And they were unable to add a note to that account to the effect of "don't do X under any circumstances"?
They put all kinds of locks on the account but they never worked, my assumption was that people who worked at the provider (who could unlock anything) were the ones stealing it!
When i worked at att all of those things were just notes on the bottom of the account. You had to specifically scroll down and try to read it.
And there was no audit trail for their actions? Wow.
Assuming that its similar to att, there is an audit trail, but noone will care to look at it for you. They will give your number back and consider it solved.
Now you know why SMS 2fa isn't secure :)
Could have tried transferring the number to another operator if that's an option.
Besides that a caller might press one too many or less amount of times the same number. It is all about muscle memory, and between address books and clipboards you might only have to enter it once (or not even that!).
That being said I still remember my old phone number I had as kid but I cannot figure out to remember my wife's (acquired number in 2015 aka the age of smartphone was into effect).
That being said I still remember my old phone number I had as kid but I cannot figure out to remember my wife's (acquired number in 2015 aka the age of smartphone was into effect).
Distressing! I have a terrible memory so I fantasize about having a phone number like that. Please tell me you at least made some money off of it.
This isn’t “stealing”, it’s just that, stealing. There should be legal consequences for providers that let this happen.
One of my YC batchmates had his company acquired by Google. They quickly shut down his product (shocking!) and had him product manage Google Fi instead. He gave me access to the beta about 7 years ago. At that time, you could search for any string of numbers and it would let you see available numbers containing that string. I was able to get a number with 4 consecutive zeros in it and to this day it brings me joy every time I see or share it. Most people are not as amused but every now and then I'll meet someone who lights up when they see it. Without fail, they were also a math nerd growing up. I guess numbers tickle some people's brains differently.
Google Voice had the same feature years ago. It's how I have an all prime number with triple 7s in the middle as my GVoice number.
I also have my cell phone number that I used a new GVoice account to be able to search for. Got a 799-4999 like number by searching for three consecutive numbers and that popped up. Ported that out to my cell a few weeks later.
I don't actually live or work in my home state, but I keep the same rural area code. Less spam overall and when I get a call from a home state area code that's not in my contacts, I can safely ignore it as being spam.
I also have my cell phone number that I used a new GVoice account to be able to search for. Got a 799-4999 like number by searching for three consecutive numbers and that popped up. Ported that out to my cell a few weeks later.
I don't actually live or work in my home state, but I keep the same rural area code. Less spam overall and when I get a call from a home state area code that's not in my contacts, I can safely ignore it as being spam.
At first I thought you might've slightly leaked your phone number here, but there's surprisingly many 10 digit prime numbers with a triple-7 in the middle (and obviously that inner 777 can't be next to a 7 else you'd call it a quadruple-7 [etc]), 1905394.
If you filter on only valid area codes, the number is a bit smaller (620350), and if you exclude Toll Free, Reserved, and Government area codes it's down to 567277.
If you filter on only valid area codes, the number is a bit smaller (620350), and if you exclude Toll Free, Reserved, and Government area codes it's down to 567277.
Absolutely agree. Having a number that brings joy to a specific group of people is way better than having an obvious "lots of X digits" kind of number. I had a mobile phone for 10+ years that was composed of a sequence of 2-digit perfect square numbers. Like 6481-1649 for example. I have many many friends that to this day can call my old number just by remembering the square roots which were pretty easy to memorize. Funny thing happened when the whole country added a leading 9 digit to increase the amount of possible users in the network. It was just sweet because it meant an extra 3 as a square root to my number.
I've moved to a different country a few years later so I lost that number but at least I managed to transfer it to a good friend who appreciated the math part of it. He still gets calls, many years later, from friends looking up for me.
I've moved to a different country a few years later so I lost that number but at least I managed to transfer it to a good friend who appreciated the math part of it. He still gets calls, many years later, from friends looking up for me.
I got my number the same way from Google Fi when it was publicly available, in xxyyyyzaab format. In my country, having a number like that usually means you have good "connections."
I’m not a big math nerd, but I’m also a programmer so maybe I have an slanted bias of what that means. Being ND also helps. I would love to see four consecutive numbers. I have kept two numbers around to now with 2 and 3 consecutive same digits. So XYY-ZYYY numbers without area code. With area code they are AYB-XYY-ZYYY for two diff area codes. I’d love giving up any Y overlap if the last four can be consecutive especially if it’s 4.
I ended up picking my current number because it had a power of two. A silly thing but it amused me.
My phone number ends in 32768. That was the highest power of two available. Funny thing is that until then, 2¹⁵ had been the only power of two from 0–16 that I didn’t clearly remember. Now I’ve got them all!
Some years ago, I met someone whose license plate was:
4745454B
I immediately felt that something was up with that, took a few more seconds that I would have liked to figure out what it was.
4745454B
I immediately felt that something was up with that, took a few more seconds that I would have liked to figure out what it was.
What, in your head?
Yep.
Ugh, I spent an entire shower thinking about this before the method to decode popped into my head. Guess I'm not enough of one.
When I signed up for google voice I searched the last 4 of my cell number, and I got the last 4, and the first 3, and middle 3 was x+2, y, z+2 so it it almost as close as possible to my actual cell. At the time I didn’t think to search for more interesting combinations of numbers, I realize how short-sighted that was now. Oh well.
I've currently got a phone number and to my surprise its
0x+y=z a+y=c a*a=b
You can probably figure out the last 3 numbers.
Ok now that i've made all of the same numbers the same variable there isn't that many combinations. Cool.
It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realise the author meant "repeating digits" when they said "consecutive digits" - I was scouring the examples for "1234" etc.
This is a neat idea!
This is a neat idea!
I was also confused. I think the author is confusing the two words.
That or 'consecutive digits that are the same', i.e. 'four consecutive 1s' would've made sense, it's just mis-generalised to 'digits'.
If anything it's the 'sequential' implication of 'consecutive digits' (that I agree the phrase has) that's weird IMO.
If anything it's the 'sequential' implication of 'consecutive digits' (that I agree the phrase has) that's weird IMO.
I've had a non-vanity phone number with five consecutive (non-repeating) digits for over 25 years. Even before the advent of phone spam and robocalling, it was receiving a lot more calls than my other phones. Many of the calls were from kids playing with a phone. It seems to be more likely than not that people press consecutive digits when dialing a "random" phone number.
Separately, I once bought a cell phone in a city with a brand new overlay area code, and they gave me this number: 424-210-0000. They were really surprised when I told them that I did not want it and had them port my old cell phone number to it instead. I suppose I could have kept it and then sold it to someone else. Apparently such things have value to some people, mostly businesses.
Separately, I once bought a cell phone in a city with a brand new overlay area code, and they gave me this number: 424-210-0000. They were really surprised when I told them that I did not want it and had them port my old cell phone number to it instead. I suppose I could have kept it and then sold it to someone else. Apparently such things have value to some people, mostly businesses.
> Apparently such things have value to some people, mostly businesses.
It was more valuable when we didn't have smartphones or couldn't just look up any number online at any time. There was an advantage in having an easy to remember number that didn't require people to look in the yellow pages.
Yes, I was there 3000 years ago.
It was more valuable when we didn't have smartphones or couldn't just look up any number online at any time. There was an advantage in having an easy to remember number that didn't require people to look in the yellow pages.
Yes, I was there 3000 years ago.
I remember it being very common for taxi numbers to have 555-5555 in their local area code
I just bought one off eBay, cost ~$100. Totally pointless but what’s an overpaid software engineer to do with their money if not vanity.
> what’s an overpaid software engineer to do with their money
https://beatmalaria.org/donate/
https://beatmalaria.org/donate/
Thank god there are some real people in here. haha
How was the handoff process for the number?
How was the handoff process for the number?
[deleted]
My wife got her phone number (randomly) many, many years ago that turned out to be the old number for "The Edge" radio station and got calls for years about people trying to request songs or answer trivia questions. Just some of the things that happen when you have one of those easy to remember numbers which are usually owned by taxi companies or pizza places.
I have a number ending in 6969. I got some very entertaining text messages and calls for a year or so.
From the article:
>One drawback is that it’s not really integrated fully in your phone - for instance, iMessages to that number won’t work, and the calls need to be made through the app.
That sucks! I wonder if there’s a way to fix that.
As for memorable phone numbers, one of my buddy’s parents had a phone number that was XXX-YYY-0001 and boy was that helpful when I got arrested and couldn’t remember anybody else’s number.
Pro Tip: Memorize a few people’s numbers!
That sucks! I wonder if there’s a way to fix that.
As for memorable phone numbers, one of my buddy’s parents had a phone number that was XXX-YYY-0001 and boy was that helpful when I got arrested and couldn’t remember anybody else’s number.
Pro Tip: Memorize a few people’s numbers!
Also memorize a lawyers number if you're going to need it when arrested. If you call a buddy the police can and will listen to your call. If you call a lawyer then they can't.
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/stopped-by-police
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/stopped-by-police
That’s a good link! Here is another one that everyone should be familiar with:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
On a similar note, if you ever need to provide a (US) number for a discount and they don't verify it (like at grocery stores) you can almost always just use a 555 number [1] in the format:
Also, these numbers are almost always going to already be registered in a rewards program:
XXX-555-01XX
Also, these numbers are almost always going to already be registered in a rewards program:
XXX-555-5555
555-555-5555
XXX-867-5309
And of course 555-1212 which contains all the other numbers.
I had one a long time ago i liked, from Google iirc, something to the effect of 454-5451 (but different, ofc). To which i would rattle off "45 45 45 1" and confuse the hell out of every listener i was trying to convey the phone number.
As much as i loved it, i stopped using it because of how confused it made literally everyone i gave it to in my unexpected format haha. The novelty wore off when i would inevitably have to repeat myself in the normal format.
As much as i loved it, i stopped using it because of how confused it made literally everyone i gave it to in my unexpected format haha. The novelty wore off when i would inevitably have to repeat myself in the normal format.
What’s amazing about that, is if you did “454” “54” “51” people would probably react positively because they would feel like they “figured it out”.
Your problem was a) breaking convention b) not letting the other party get their own dopamine boost.
Your problem was a) breaking convention b) not letting the other party get their own dopamine boost.
Yeah letting people figure it out or giving obvious but not complete hints so they figure it out would Bork great. It would make it more memorable for me.
> The novelty wore off when i would inevitably have to repeat myself in the normal format.
Same with a custom domain I had for emails. People just expect you to say "@gmail.com".
Same with a custom domain I had for emails. People just expect you to say "@gmail.com".
> Same with a custom domain I had for emails. People just expect you to say "@gmail.com"
Yup. For a looong time my email address has been the same: $firstname@$lastname.com
When I'm giving it to someone new it usually takes a few tries for them to get it right, even if they already know both my first and last names :/
Yup. For a looong time my email address has been the same: $firstname@$lastname.com
When I'm giving it to someone new it usually takes a few tries for them to get it right, even if they already know both my first and last names :/
I had both of these problems. My number used to be something like 555-348-8889. My email uses a domain hack of my last name so like [email protected]. The former eventually changed to something equally ridiculous but easier to say, the latter I'm still trying to figure out how to say out loud after 8 years.
hah, i have bobs.mi (ie intentionally missing last letters of my name, letting me do bobs.mi/th sort of stuff). I've often debated setting my email up.. maybe i shouldn't, /shrug
Though i don't know what i'd use anyway. [email protected] sounds .. annoying to say over the phone lol. Maybe i lean into it, [email protected] or [email protected]... heh
Though i don't know what i'd use anyway. [email protected] sounds .. annoying to say over the phone lol. Maybe i lean into it, [email protected] or [email protected]... heh
Mine's actually [email protected], which isn't too bad (one of my roommates uses my domain on resumes for some reason with a [email protected] style).
If you want to be really obnoxcious just have your full on name. [email protected], or maybe a [email protected]
I also have a backup gmail that just dumps to my main inboc of just my full name if I don't want to bother with trying to explain
If you want to be really obnoxcious just have your full on name. [email protected], or maybe a [email protected]
I also have a backup gmail that just dumps to my main inboc of just my full name if I don't want to bother with trying to explain
Yep. I have area code, digit, area code, area code. People are NOT pleased with a grouping like 321 9 321 321! Best to enunciate “digit. by. digit.” like the phone number robots.
The one that gets me is credit card operators who say your card number to you in groupings different from the card itself, like 5 digits then 3 groups of 3 instead of 5 4 5 or whatever the card is.
The one that gets me is credit card operators who say your card number to you in groupings different from the card itself, like 5 digits then 3 groups of 3 instead of 5 4 5 or whatever the card is.
The ISP I use in the UK [0] has VoIP offerings too, and they let you search for a pattern of numbers. We've got several similar numbers for our businesses and some fun 1234 patterns too. Very memorable!
[0] https://aa.net.uk/
[0] https://aa.net.uk/
I have a number ending in 1337 from them. Also keep in mind that their mobile number don't count as VoIP and will work fine for most verification purposes.
I got a memorable phone number a while ago. Websites like numberbarn.com make it relatively easy. A key realization I had is that repeating numbers aren’t the thing to look for, because they’re what everybody is depleting and marking up, and actually aren’t a very good proxy for what you really care about, which is memorability and maybe aesthetics. For example, 34567 is better than 37771, and also more likely to be available and cheap. Repeating digits and their associated markup are also about typability, but that probably barely matters to you if people are almost always calling from their address book.
I had a friend in high school who was randomly assigned a mobile number that contained exactly two digits - 3 & 9 (excluding the +1 for the US country code.) Over a decade later, it’s one of the few phone numbers I can remember off the top of my head where the person isn’t in my immediate family.
In the UK, when I was at school and at a time when numbers were shorter, I had a friend in the mid Sussex area (dialling code 0444) with a number that was mostly 4s.
That made his number from anywhere in the world +44 444 4x4y4. I’ve always remembered his number too.
That made his number from anywhere in the world +44 444 4x4y4. I’ve always remembered his number too.
Before someone does this, consider one possible risk. People can easily remember vanity numbers. That is the risk.
I did this when I worked in a wireless provider and it was a mistake in my case. It was one of the factors that made me the go-to person for just about any problem and I was the default person to call for a myriad of issues. I was so happy to rid myself of that number. As a positive note this helped enforce a discipline in me to guide people to a ticketing system.
I did this when I worked in a wireless provider and it was a mistake in my case. It was one of the factors that made me the go-to person for just about any problem and I was the default person to call for a myriad of issues. I was so happy to rid myself of that number. As a positive note this helped enforce a discipline in me to guide people to a ticketing system.
I'd settle for a number that wasn't previously used. I've had my current number for 8 years and the caller id still shows the previous owner. I still get all manner of calls for the previous owner too, everything from local politicians asking for money to old friends asking if he's in town and wants to hang out.
This is why I've hung onto my same number for... nearly 20 years now.
Besides "looking" fake, the entire prefix was _just_ assigned when I got my number. No one's had it before me.
I get next-to-zero spam calls, wrong numbers, calls for past owners, or anything else.
Besides "looking" fake, the entire prefix was _just_ assigned when I got my number. No one's had it before me.
I get next-to-zero spam calls, wrong numbers, calls for past owners, or anything else.
Many VoIP providers have ordering systems that let you do vanity searches, and some have APIs. Twilio is one. You can put down a few dollars to start an account, buy a number, and then immediately port it away to a mobile carrier if you like.
When I got my first phone number (circa 2000?), I asked for something memorable.
The operator rattled off 0427 151 181, which sounded fine enough. Then he pointed out it was my birthday - 15/11/81.
I think that’s pretty nifty, but what really impressed me was when I met my beautiful wife several years later - because her birthday is 27/11/81, so my phone number actually includes her date as well as mine.
The operator rattled off 0427 151 181, which sounded fine enough. Then he pointed out it was my birthday - 15/11/81.
I think that’s pretty nifty, but what really impressed me was when I met my beautiful wife several years later - because her birthday is 27/11/81, so my phone number actually includes her date as well as mine.
You probably know this but if that is your real date of birth, I suggest that change the numbers so that you are not leaking your and your wife’s PII on the internet. All sorts of people out there who might be able to use it to steal both your identities, crypto, etc.
In fact your entire comment linking your easily obtainable phone number to your birthday might be risky to say publicly.
In fact your entire comment linking your easily obtainable phone number to your birthday might be risky to say publicly.
Don't worry, like most forum applications post-1995 HN has basic privacy controls, like editing posts or at least deleting old ones.
Jk it's impossible after a short time.
Jk it's impossible after a short time.
TIL ! Let's hope that doesn't come back to haunt me...
Yeah, I debated that before posting. It’s all already public information, and I know it won’t do too much from an Op Sec perspective but I planned to edit the post once the discussion drops off the front page.
[deleted]
When I signed up for GVoice it gave me the option to enter the last 4 digits and it would give me the number if it was available. I took advantage of this to make my phone number a palindrome (except for the area code).
Back in the day, Google Voice let you find a number that matched a string, as in 1-800-LAWYERS. I got a number that, inclusive of area code (!), is of the form XYXY-<my first name>. It has a couple other interesting and obvious properties I can't share without making it too easy to guess the number, so I'll just say that it's a great number and I hope I never lose it.
I took advantage of this same Google Voice feature, and got myself a number with _7_ consecutive digits. So my phone number for an international caller is +1-234-567-xyzy.
It was very easy for my kids to memorize as they were growing up.
Sometimes, when I'm telling them my number for them to note down, people stop midway through until they realize I'm not really pranking them.
I'm sure people would not take me seriously if my number had all 10 digits in a sequence and started to repeat after that.
It was very easy for my kids to memorize as they were growing up.
Sometimes, when I'm telling them my number for them to note down, people stop midway through until they realize I'm not really pranking them.
I'm sure people would not take me seriously if my number had all 10 digits in a sequence and started to repeat after that.
I've got one that ends in xxx-6789. It makes it easy for kids to remember and it gets a nice little "huh!" from people when I tell them. Seven though, that's a whole 'nother ball game.
Psh. My phone number, which I got a few years ago, has the first 6 digits of pi. :D
Took writing a script to brute force google voice, but totally worth it!
Took writing a script to brute force google voice, but totally worth it!
Fun fact: in the beginning of the 90's some Finnish telecom operators sold people short phone numbers, such as 050 1984. Today there exists a black market for these "lyhytnumerot" and if you want one, you'll have to pay thousands for it. But they exist and they still work.
This post reminds me of the chapter in Steve Wozniak's biography dedicated to his obsession with phone numbers. It details his favorite owned numbers and attempts to convince phone companies to sell him numbers that make have interesting properties when converted to binary.
When I was young, maybe 13, I found Woz’s phone number online and called it from my cell which has 6 repeating digits. He must have enjoyed seeing my number because he answered! In a star struck moment of panic I hung up after hearing his voice. One of my big regrets to this day.
When I was a CSR at old AirTouch Cellular I would look for cool numbers and when 999-9999 in Phoenix came available I snapped it up for my employee phone benefit. You can’t imagine how many wrong dials and prank calls you get. I gave it up after a month.
> and a nice number to give out when you don’t want to give out your real one.
I’ve setup a voip.ms number just for voicemail. Unanswered calls to my phone get redirected to that number after X rings (this functionality is baked into gsm). Then the voicemails get emailed to me so I never deal with my provider’s voicemail IVR.
So for people I don’t want to call me, I give them that voicemail number and it always goes straight to voicemail.
It’s also nice because I can still get and keep voicemails if I’m, say, out of country for 30 days because my provider deletes them after 10 or something days.
Easy to share and save voicemails automagically.
I’ve setup a voip.ms number just for voicemail. Unanswered calls to my phone get redirected to that number after X rings (this functionality is baked into gsm). Then the voicemails get emailed to me so I never deal with my provider’s voicemail IVR.
So for people I don’t want to call me, I give them that voicemail number and it always goes straight to voicemail.
It’s also nice because I can still get and keep voicemails if I’m, say, out of country for 30 days because my provider deletes them after 10 or something days.
Easy to share and save voicemails automagically.
I use a voip.ms IVR to filter calls since I was getting so many spam calls on my phone. Whitelisted numbers ring through and everyone else has to press a number. It totally killed all spam.
> I never deal with my provider’s voicemail IVR
In the era of smartphones, why would anyone use an IVR for voicemail? On phone VM UI was a launch day feature for iPhone…
In the era of smartphones, why would anyone use an IVR for voicemail? On phone VM UI was a launch day feature for iPhone…
Only if your provider supports it. I’m in the 4th world when it comes to telecoms (Canada).
I only set this all up in the first place because our providers charged for voicemail more recently than you’d like to know.
I only set this all up in the first place because our providers charged for voicemail more recently than you’d like to know.
My cat sitter's number legit ends in -0000. Couldn't believe it. She said it was just the number she was given.
When I and my friends in Toronto signed up for mobile phone service about 15 years ago, we simply got to pick our last 4 digits. I saw examples like picking the same suffix as their landline, picking a mnemonic for their name (e.g. MARY -> 6279), picking lots of trailing zeros.
> I saw examples like picking the same suffix as their landline
I did that, to make it easier for people to remember, which is moot now. And now when I log into my bank or other account, they ask me if I want to get a text to XXX-XXX-8436 or XXX-XXX-8436? One is my cell and one is my landline and I'll be damned if I can tell which is which.
I did that, to make it easier for people to remember, which is moot now. And now when I log into my bank or other account, they ask me if I want to get a text to XXX-XXX-8436 or XXX-XXX-8436? One is my cell and one is my landline and I'll be damned if I can tell which is which.
I bought a DID on voip.ms with 5 consecutive digits. They allow you to search by any substring, though you can only search within a single area code, so it takes a little hunting and pecking to find a good one.
The author mentions it, but Burp Suite has both a "Repeater" and "Intruder" mode which can be used to do all of this without writing a single line of code.
For my oldest child, I used Twilio to search for something memorable in our crowded area code and then ported out to Number Barn. For the next two, I just used Number Barn directly to find two sequential numbers for them. Still have year and half before youngest gets the number ported to a mobile phone.
"4 consecutive digits". But the code is wrong:
def contains_cons(num):
for i in range(len(num) - 2):
if num[i] == num[i + 1] and num[i + 1] == num[i + 2]:
return True
return False
assert not contains_cons("+1234567000")My vanity phone number has the year I was born and 6502, the CPU in my first computer.
Sweet!
Much like the other posters, I have fond memories of my landline number growing up, which ended up in the format abcb bbbd which made it incredibly easy to both remember and rattle off when making take-away orders…
Similar, have a landline with (areacode) ABB-0-ABB When giving it out I'm almost always told, 'wow thats easy to remember,' exactly why I chose it. Unfortunately (AC) AC-0-AC was not available
Anybody can find a pretty cool number if they don't care about the area code. Now play in "hard mode," which is to obtain a memorable (800) number.
No, (844) or (855), etc, don't count.
No, (844) or (855), etc, don't count.
Thing is… most people have unlimited plans and don’t care anymore
Simply not correct.
If nobody cares, why is an 800 number more expensive? A vanity 800 close to impossible? Why is demand so high that they keep releasing new toll-free area codes (888, 877, 855, 844, 833, with 822 and 880 coming soon)? Why do desirable 800 numbers become available so infrequently?
800 is like .com Sure there are alternatives, but none are nearly as valuable as .com, or an (800) number, because they signal solid, trust-able, well-established businesses. And because they are easy to remember.
If nobody cares, why is an 800 number more expensive? A vanity 800 close to impossible? Why is demand so high that they keep releasing new toll-free area codes (888, 877, 855, 844, 833, with 822 and 880 coming soon)? Why do desirable 800 numbers become available so infrequently?
800 is like .com Sure there are alternatives, but none are nearly as valuable as .com, or an (800) number, because they signal solid, trust-able, well-established businesses. And because they are easy to remember.
Agree with the second graf for old people like me, but I think it means little to the current generation.
In high school my friend got the number 500-0001 and I was always so jealous. But I think the number has become kind of irrelevant these days.
When I was in high school, numbers with 0 in them were the worst because of how long they took to dial using a dial phone.
whilst the author seems
to have partially corrected it, it seems this applies to many commenters here as well:
consecutive != repeated
consecutive != repeated
> I went through and bought a dummy number to figure out how to purchase the number programatically, and then did the same method as above to purchase it.
This guy is going a little hard on the automation at the end there, what's the point of automating a one-in-a-lifetime task?
Just buy the one number you want instead of the dummy number and you're done.
This guy is going a little hard on the automation at the end there, what's the point of automating a one-in-a-lifetime task?
Just buy the one number you want instead of the dummy number and you're done.
You have to be presented the number in the UI to buy it in the UI…
Good catch, I wish he mentioned that explicitly but I guess I could have inferred it from the screenshot
Exploration and fun
[deleted]
The problem was people would constantly try to "steal" the number. Four or five times a year my phone would just stop working because someone had "persuaded" a call-centre worker at my provider to assign the number to a new SIM they could sell on eBay. Apparently people pay a LOT of money for vanity numbers.
No matter what additional "security locks" they put on my account it kept getting hijacked, so eventually I just got a new (much less interesting) number.