Dial "1-800-CHICAGO" For a Good Time ($2.99 a Minute)

If any of you out there were under the assumption that dialing 1-800-CHICAGO would get you local tourism advice, let's pop that bubble for you right now. A Philadelphia-based company, PrimeTel Communications, has gobbled up that number and a few others, which redirect callers (some unsuspecting) to sex chat lines. By a few, we mean most of their 1.7 million toll-free numbers.

Another local toll free number PrimeTel acquired was the one formerly used by Cook County Jail to give callers information on inmates. But they mainly seem to grab vague toll free numbers like 1-800--CAMERAS and 1-800-WORSHIP which, being that the callers are re-routed to sex lines, seem fitting depending on a caller's proclivities. Other numbers like 1-800-WHIRLPOOL and 1-800-CADILLAC had us searching Urban Dictionary. But it is a lucrative business that preys on misconception and misdialing. PrimeTel has also obtained the former toll-free numbers for AIDS and safe sex hotlines, and rape crisis centers.

PrimeTel appears to have a history of hoarding toll-free numbers for re-routing to phone sex lines; one business owner detailed his legal battle with PrimeTel to acquire a number online. Hoardng toll-free numbers is a violation of FCC regulations.