ac>> Apparently 555-1212 is Directory Assistance in the US and Canada.

 MvLe> Ah I see. I suppose that should be rejected back in the day when
 MvLe> people actually took phone numbers seriously. These days nobody
 MvLe> cares :) 

 ac> I don't think anybody really cared much back then either :)

uh, yeah... they did too... how were/are they supposed to be able to verify
a caller without one? consider a caller who forgets their password... the
sysop can easily call them at their voice number if there's a large set of
log entries about an incorrect password... if they haven't been calling or
forgotten their password, it likely indicates someone trying to hack the
account...

i've also mentioned call-back verifiers and that they pull the number to
call back from the user's bbs record... since most systems do not allow for
numbers to be duplicated, this is one way of being more sure that someone
is who they say they are... if there are family members or roommates
calling the same system from the same number, then they can contact the
sysop concerning the duplicate number condition and the sysop can then
decide how to handle the situation...

it hasn't been all that long ago, guys... POTS is still alive and well and active ;)

)\/(ark