Philly company hoards numbers for sexlines

Records show that a little-known Philadelphia company has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of the 1-800 numbers in the United States and Canada.

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.

As of March, PrimeTel Communications administered more 800 numbers than any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.

Dial 1-800-Chicago and, instead of reaching a tourism hotline for the Windy City, you will hear a woman offering "one-on-one talk with a nasty girl" for $2.99 per minute. A similar thing happens if you punch in the initial digits of 1-800-Camera, among other numbers.

That and other such numbers contain messages redirecting callers to erotic chat lines operated by National A-1 Advertising, a company that has common ownership with PrimeTel. -- AP