From Wired Magazine comes this wonderful story about a 1-800 number squatter who wanted a "six-figure" dollar value for a certain 1-800 phone number. 1-800-RED-CROSS
Red Cross Gets Squatter's Number
Acting on an emergency request from the American Red Cross, the FCC on Friday handed over control of the toll-free number 1-800-RED-CROSS to the nonprofit group, unceremoniously plucking it from the hands of corporate digit-squatters who'd been hoping for a six-figure payday.
"They weren't going to give it to us, and they were going to charge us ridiculous amounts of money to use it," says Chuck Connor, senior vice president of communication and marketing for the American Red Cross. "They were talking about the kinds of money that changed hands for 1-800-FLOWERS, which is ridiculous."
But would-be contributors will experience something more puzzling if they try to reach the organization through the most obvious, though wrong, phone number. Calls from Wired News to 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) were answered Tuesday by a cheery male voice announcing, "Thank you for calling 800-Ideas.com Inc. of San Diego, California. We offer telecommunications service to the business community."
The upbeat recording refers callers to the company's main number, then hangs up.
The Red Cross finally asked the FCC to intervene last Friday in the wake of Katrina. The commission ruled the same day, noting its longstanding policies "against warehousing, hoarding and brokering of toll-free numbers" and the importance of the Red Cross' work.
So the number has not transferred quite yet -- it will and it is theirs to keep for one year at least. The article talks about the previous owner of that number and their claims to legitimacy. I love how pro-active the FCC was on this... Hand it over NOW! Like to a self-centered child... The owner of 800-ideas could have gotten a huge amount of favorable publicity by donating that number and considering that the Red Cross is non-profit, a nice tax write-off. But they decided to be greedy and got their wrists slapped...
