Company IDs 7 killed in Afghanistan plane crash

DETROIT (AP) — Jamie Brokaw was an experienced navigator who was no stranger to dangerous flying situations and had the skills to stay cool in the face of danger, according to close friend Chris Connerton.

"He was a very good person and very smart person," Connerton told The Associated Press by telephone from Rochester, Minn.

Brokaw, 33, of Monroe, Mich., was among seven Americans killed Monday when their National Air Cargo plane crashed near an Air Force base in Afghanistan. Six of the victims were from Michigan and a seventh was from Kentucky, said Shirley Kaufman, National Air Cargo vice president.

Connerton said Brokaw was a key reason he was able to make it through flight school in Jacksonville, Fla., where they met.

Connerton also described a harrowing flight two years ago from Toledo, Ohio, to an international flight expo in Lakeland, Fla. Connerton said ice had built up on the plane to the point that he could no longer get it to climb.

"If it wasn't for Jamie's navigation and know-how ... we wouldn't have made it," Connerton said.

Killed along with Brokaw in the Afghanistan crash were Gary Stockdale, 51; pilots Brad Hasler, 34, of Trenton, Mich., and Jeremy Lipka, 37, of Brooklyn, Mich.; first officer Rinku Summan, 32, of Canton, Mich.; loadmaster Michael Sheets, 36, of Ypsilanti, Mich.; and maintenance crewman Timothy Garrett, 51, of Louisville, Ky.

Building model planes and working on real ones comprised Stockdale's passion, filling the family's basement with models in his youth, jumping into aviation as a career at age 16 — and later working at two Detroit-area airports.

Stockdale also knew the dangers of flying, his older brother said Tuesday.

"He always said it was dangerous," said Glenn Stockdale, 55. "He would always say, 'You either will die in a car crash or a ball of flame in a plane.'"

Lipka had flow in Iraq as well as Afghanistan and had close calls before, said his stepfather, Dave Buttman.

"There was risk there all the time. He knew the risks. He volunteered to take the trips," Buttman told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. "Basically, you're taking your chances flying in there and he was just happy to be one of the pilots to do it."

The Dubai-bound Boeing 747-400 — operated by National Air Cargo — crashed just after takeoff Monday from Bagram Air Base around 11:20 a.m. local time, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Tuesday.

The accident site is within the perimeter of Bagram Air Base.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but NATO said the claims were false and there was no sign of insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash.

The NTSB said it will lead a team of three investigators to assist the Afghanistan Ministry of Transportation and Commercial Aviation in investigating the crash. But a ministry spokesman, Nangoialy Qalatwal, said Tuesday the ministry is not involved with the investigation because it occurred at a military and not a civilian airport.

Kaufman said the plane — owned by National Airlines, an Orlando, Fla.-based subsidiary of National Air Cargo — was carrying vehicles and other cargo.

Elena Garrett, of Jeffersonville, Ind., just across the Ohio River from Louisville, said ex-husband Timothy Garrett would have turned 52 on Saturday. They have two daughters together, ages 11 and 12.

"We're all devastated," Elena Garrett said about his death. "We were still best friends. He's the best father I've ever seen (and) ready to help anybody. He would give the shirt off his back for anybody."

Bill Hasler said his family learned Monday morning that his brother, Brad, was one of the crash victims.

"Brad was a wonderful father to two young children, a beloved husband to a wife who is expecting another child, a loving son, and the most loyal and supportive brother I could have ever asked for," Bill Hasler said in a statement. "His influence in the lives of all of us who loved him is immeasurable, and our grief is indescribable."

National Airlines was based until recently at Michigan's Willow Run Airport, west of Detroit. It carries cargo both commercially and for the military, Kaufman said. She said the company employs about 225 people.

Summan had worked 2? years for National Air Cargo, said his wife, Rajnit Summan.

Rajnit Summan said she last spoke to her husband Sunday.

"I told him to be safe," she said.

___

Joan Lowy reported from Washington. Associated Press writers David N. Goodman in Detroit, Elizabeth Campbell in Louisville, Ky., and Patrick Quinn in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

Via Yahoo News!

DOT: Bus company involved in deadly wreck tried to change name

Four people were killed Tuesday when a Sky Express bus ran off I-95 near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and overturned.DOT says Sky Express attempted to use a new name to sell ticketsAgency issued a cease-and-desist order against the N.C.-based carrierIt had been placed out of service for violating multiple safety regulations

(CNN) -- The company that operated a commercial tour bus involved in a deadly crash this week has been issued a cease-and-desist order after the U.S. Department of Transportation said it tried to resume operations under a different name.

Four people were killed and 53 others injured Tuesday when the Sky Express bus ran off Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and overturned.

Investigators have blamed the wreck on driver fatigue.

The 37-year-old driver of the bus, Kin Yiu Cheung of Flushing, New York, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Sky Express Inc. had been placed out of service Tuesday by the transportation department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for multiple federal safety violations, which prohibited it from operating interstate transportation services.

The department issued the cease-and-desist order Friday after it said it found the company trying to operate and sell tickets under two new names: 108 Tours and 108 Bus.

"We are relentlessly targeting unsafe and illegal bus companies," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "This action sends a strong message that the U.S. Department of Transportation will utilize every legal and enforcement tool available to shut down unsafe bus companies and protect passengers and motorists."

The transportation department also subpoenaed Friday the records of three websites that have sold tickets for the company as the DOT seeks to crack down on "unsafe, reincarnated bus companies."

A call to Sky Express was not immediately returned Saturday, and its website had been taken offline.

CNN's affiliate in Charlotte, WCNC, tried to contact the business Friday, but its building was closed.

CNN

Russian company releases iOS decryption tools (Appolicious)

The first set of commercially sold tools for cracking into an iPhone’s security have been made available by a Russian company. You might want to change your iOS passwords to something more solid than “1234.”

According to a story from Ars Technica, Russian data security company ElcomSoft has created a set of software tools that can be used to break through the encryption on an iPhone. Part password-breaker, part scanner for encryption numbers to get further data out of the phone, the tools are only being made available to law enforcement. Here’s a quote from Ars’ story:

“The decryption tool requires access to the device in question, but once it's in hand, a few different kinds of keys need can be scraped from it, including the unique device key (UID) and escrow keys calculated using the UID and escrow pairing records. If the device is only protected by a 4-digit passcode, the program then only needs to brute-force its way through that to get access to all of the decryptable information.”

As Ars points out, the security features of Apple’s iOS platform aren’t exactly impregnable, and the story goes on to mention that a similar decryption method was created by the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology in February. The difference is that those tools aren’t for sale.

And though the decryption tools exist, they’re not infallible, either. Switching out a 4-digit code for a longer and more complex password basically stops the commercially available tools dead, since the password breaker works by trying number combinations until it finds the right one. Mix it up, and the first step of the decryption gets stalled out.

Another good way to beat the decryption: Keep your iPhone stuffed full of incriminating information out of the hands of the coppers. Without the device, they got nothin’.

With smartphones becoming more and more prevalent, though, data and information stored on them is being used in ways their creators and owners might not have considered. It’s a good idea to keep in mind that the things you do on your smartphone might not remain private.

The U.S. Senate is considering an amendment to a law that would offer more protections to citizens about the use of their data in the cloud and on smartphones by law enforcement, but it’s not infallible. It came out just a few weeks ago that law enforcement officials were using a bug in iPhones to track their owners’ movements for investigations, with no warrant required.

Moral of the story: Use your smartphone cautiously, both for your security and your privacy.

Yahoo! News

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California company announces grape tomato recall

Salmonella can cause serious illness and even death if ingested.Recall affects 29 types of packaged salads sold at six retail storesThe six are Albertson's, Raley's, Sam's Club, Savemart, Signature Cafe and Wal-MartThe recall applies to products sold in 13 western U.S. states

(CNN) -- Taylor Farms Pacific, Inc., a California-based food supplier for six retail chain stores, has announced the recall of grape tomatoes produced by a grower who said the vegetables might be contaminated with salmonella.

The recall applies to 29 brand-packaged salads sold at Albertson's, Raley's, Sam's Club, Savemart, Signature Cafe and Wal-Mart, the company said in a statement Monday. The affected products have expiration dates ranging from April 27 to May 9, according to the news release.

The recall applies to 13 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, according to a spreadsheet attached to the news release.

Salmonella is a form of bacteria found in food that can cause serious illness and even death if ingested.

Taylor Farms has urged consumers not to eat these products and to return them to where they were purchased for full refunds.

Taylor Farms said customers with questions should call the company at 209-835-6300 or contact the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

CNN

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Porn company is amassing 1-800 numbers

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, teenagers across the U.S. could call a toll-free hotline if they had embarrassing questions about AIDS and safe sex. Dial the same number now and you get a recording of giggling women offering to talk dirty to you.

People walk by a building containing offices of PrimeTel Communications on Friday in Philadelphia.

By Matt Rourke, AP

People walk by a building containing offices of PrimeTel Communications on Friday in Philadelphia.

?We both have big appetites for sex,? they purr. ?Pinch us and poke us. Spank us and tease us. We love it all. ? Enter your credit card number now.?

Those naughty misdials, and countless others like them, appear to be no accident.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers that any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.

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.

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-Metallica, 1-800-Cadillac, 1-800-Minolta, 1-800-Cameras, 1-800-Worship or 1-800-Whirlpool.

All those numbers contain messages redirecting callers to erotic chat lines operated by National A-1 Advertising, a company that shares an office building with PrimeTel, has common ownership and lists many of the same people as executives or business contacts.

Many people who mistakenly dial a phone-sex line probably just get red-faced and hang up as quickly as possible. Others apparently respond to the come-on and supply their credit card number.

?I guess enough people go for it that it makes business sense,? said Aelea Christofferson, president of ATL Communications, another company that specializes in toll-free services. Capturing callers who have reached the wrong number ? whether because they punched an incorrect digit or dialed a number without realizing it had changed hands ? is a ?big new industry,? she said.

Founded in 1995, PrimeTel is one of around 400 companies registered as toll-free service providers for the U.S. and Canada. That gives it the same power to reserve and assign unused toll-free numbers as big phone companies with millions of customers. But PrimeTel appears to be amassing numbers predominantly for one closely related partner, National A-1.

There is nothing illegal about using toll-free phone services to promote adult entertainment, and callers aren?t charged unless they supply their credit card information.

Over the years, though, PrimeTel has been hit with lawsuits and complaints alleging that it is violating federal rules banning toll-free service providers from hoarding digits. Federal Communications Commission rules say that ?routing multiple toll-free numbers to a single toll-free subscriber? is usually considered hoarding.

The FCC has never taken formal action against PrimeTel or National A-1, although federal authorities have expressed renewed interest lately in companies that handle toll-free numbers. In the fall, authorities sent subpoenas to several, including PrimeTel, asking for information on how they acquire numbers and why.

And in October, federal agents and Philadelphia police spent two days removing records from National A-1?s office suite, although it is unclear if the action was related to the phone business.

The man listed on many government records as the top executive at both PrimeTel and National A-1, Richard Cohen, declined interview requests. A lawyer for both companies, Charles Helein, would not discuss their business dealings in detail but said PrimeTel isn?t breaking any rules or engaging in prohibited practices such as selling numbers or obtaining ones it doesn?t intend to use.

?They are extremely sensitive to the FCC. ? They wouldn?t have them if they didn?t need them,? Helein said of PrimeTel?s huge pool of numbers. He said the company?s large share hasn?t caused any shortages: ?Everybody?s got all the numbers they need.?

Helein said the raid last fall was not aimed at PrimeTel. National A-1 and its owners have a variety of business enterprises headquartered at the same address, including a website sometimes used by prostitutes to advertise their services.

According to a database maintained by an industry organization, PrimeTel was listed as the administrator of record for at least 1,667,000 out of around 7.87 million active 800 numbers as of this March. Industry experts said PrimeTel also holds a dominant share of numbers with other toll-free codes, like 888 and 866, giving it several million numbers overall.

Sex isn?t the only business. Some numbers reach advertisements for a mortgage brokerage based in New Jersey. Others promote a dieting website or a travel reservation service. Those instances appear to be outnumbered by ones in which callers reach a phone-sex solicitation.

Critics of the company say it isn?t the sex that bothers them, but the acquisition of so many numbers.

Bill Quimby, whose company, TollFreeNumbers.com, specializes in helping businesses obtain easy-to-remember digits to connect with customers, said it can be a challenge to find a good match because PrimeTel has gobbled up such an outsized share of the supply.

?They started by getting numbers for phone sex, then getting good numbers in general, then they started taking all phone numbers,? he said.

A spokesman for the FCC, David Fiske, would not comment on whether the agency had ever examined PrimeTel?s activities but said the commission is actively enforcing rules on number hoarding.

PrimeTel appears to have benefited by grabbing numbers associated with famous names, like 1-800-Beatles, or numbers that have recently been canceled but are still advertised widely.

From the late 1980s until around 2005, teenagers who dialed the national hotline used by Teens Teaching AIDS Prevention would reach a call center in Kansas City, Mo., where other youths were waiting to answer questions about the disease. When that program ended, the number was soon routed to one of National A-1?s sex lines. But the AIDS hotline number is still publicized by public health groups.

When New York City?s Fire Department relinquished its toll-free fire safety hotline a few years ago because of an administrative slip-up, PrimeTel grabbed it the moment it became available. Soon enough, 1-800-FIRETIP was ringing into one of National A-1?s phone-sex lines.

The same thing happened to the Cook County Jail in Chicago when it canceled its toll-free inmate information line, and to rape counseling hotlines in Maine and New Mexico.

The Republican National Committee once printed a fundraising mailer with a toll-free calling code and was publicly embarrassed when the calls began ringing in to one of National A-1?s chat lines.

It happened to Glenn Noyes, too. Shortly after the toll-free number for his auto repair business in Edgewater, Md., was mistakenly canceled by his phone company, it began redirecting customers to an erotic chat service called ?Intimate Encounters.?

?It was pretty embarrassing,? Noyes said. ?I had people walking around wearing T-shirts with that number.?

People in the telecommunications industry who are familiar with PrimeTel say that in addition to snapping up familiar 1-800 numbers, the company may be trying to capitalize on people?s fat-finger dialing mistakes by acquiring numbers that are just a digit or two away from a major company?s number.

Helein denied PrimeTel was trying to capitalize from misdials or engaged in a strategy to intercept calls made by customers of other businesses.

The key to PrimeTel?s business is its access to the entity that controls the assignment of toll-free numbers, called the 800 Service Management System. Numbers are available on a first-come, first-served basis at a cost of about 9.6 cents per month. When a customer is done using a number, it is supposed to go back into the pool for use by someone else.

FCC rules expressly ban service providers from reserving a number unless they have a genuine customer lined up to use it. Speculating in numbers is banned. They are considered public resources that may not be bought or sold. The big phone companies that supply toll-free numbers make their money not by selling the number itself but by providing telephone service.

But there are also companies that are illegally buying and selling the numbers, and they are a hot commodity, sometimes even available on eBay.

Such numbers are so highly sought-after that several companies have built powerful computer systems that search the database every day, looking for digits of potential value. Numbers can be reserved as quickly as 95 milliseconds after they are released by former users.

Helein said PrimeTel has been the target of complaints from other industry players who are ?jealous? of the company?s computer systems.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Porn company is amassing 1-800 numbers

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, teenagers across the U.S. could call a toll-free hotline if they had embarrassing questions about AIDS and safe sex. Dial the same number now and you get a recording of giggling women offering to talk dirty to you.

var data = blocks.columnist;if (data != undefined){document.getElementById('columnistmug').innerHTML=data;} By Matt Rourke, AP

People walk by a building containing offices of PrimeTel Communications on Friday in Philadelphia.

By Matt Rourke, AP

People walk by a building containing offices of PrimeTel Communications on Friday in Philadelphia.

?We both have big appetites for sex,? they purr. ?Pinch us and poke us. Spank us and tease us. We love it all. ? Enter your credit card number now.?

Those naughty misdials, and countless others like them, appear to be no accident.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers that any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.

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.

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-Metallica, 1-800-Cadillac, 1-800-Minolta, 1-800-Cameras, 1-800-Worship or 1-800-Whirlpool.

All those numbers contain messages redirecting callers to erotic chat lines operated by National A-1 Advertising, a company that shares an office building with PrimeTel, has common ownership and lists many of the same people as executives or business contacts.

Many people who mistakenly dial a phone-sex line probably just get red-faced and hang up as quickly as possible. Others apparently respond to the come-on and supply their credit card number.

?I guess enough people go for it that it makes business sense,? said Aelea Christofferson, president of ATL Communications, another company that specializes in toll-free services. Capturing callers who have reached the wrong number ? whether because they punched an incorrect digit or dialed a number without realizing it had changed hands ? is a ?big new industry,? she said.

Founded in 1995, PrimeTel is one of around 400 companies registered as toll-free service providers for the U.S. and Canada. That gives it the same power to reserve and assign unused toll-free numbers as big phone companies with millions of customers. But PrimeTel appears to be amassing numbers predominantly for one closely related partner, National A-1.

There is nothing illegal about using toll-free phone services to promote adult entertainment, and callers aren?t charged unless they supply their credit card information.

Over the years, though, PrimeTel has been hit with lawsuits and complaints alleging that it is violating federal rules banning toll-free service providers from hoarding digits. Federal Communications Commission rules say that ?routing multiple toll-free numbers to a single toll-free subscriber? is usually considered hoarding.

The FCC has never taken formal action against PrimeTel or National A-1, although federal authorities have expressed renewed interest lately in companies that handle toll-free numbers. In the fall, authorities sent subpoenas to several, including PrimeTel, asking for information on how they acquire numbers and why.

And in October, federal agents and Philadelphia police spent two days removing records from National A-1?s office suite, although it is unclear if the action was related to the phone business.

The man listed on many government records as the top executive at both PrimeTel and National A-1, Richard Cohen, declined interview requests. A lawyer for both companies, Charles Helein, would not discuss their business dealings in detail but said PrimeTel isn?t breaking any rules or engaging in prohibited practices such as selling numbers or obtaining ones it doesn?t intend to use.

?They are extremely sensitive to the FCC. ? They wouldn?t have them if they didn?t need them,? Helein said of PrimeTel?s huge pool of numbers. He said the company?s large share hasn?t caused any shortages: ?Everybody?s got all the numbers they need.?

Helein said the raid last fall was not aimed at PrimeTel. National A-1 and its owners have a variety of business enterprises headquartered at the same address, including a website sometimes used by prostitutes to advertise their services.

According to a database maintained by an industry organization, PrimeTel was listed as the administrator of record for at least 1,667,000 out of around 7.87 million active 800 numbers as of this March. Industry experts said PrimeTel also holds a dominant share of numbers with other toll-free codes, like 888 and 866, giving it several million numbers overall.

Sex isn?t the only business. Some numbers reach advertisements for a mortgage brokerage based in New Jersey. Others promote a dieting website or a travel reservation service. Those instances appear to be outnumbered by ones in which callers reach a phone-sex solicitation.

Critics of the company say it isn?t the sex that bothers them, but the acquisition of so many numbers.

Bill Quimby, whose company, TollFreeNumbers.com, specializes in helping businesses obtain easy-to-remember digits to connect with customers, said it can be a challenge to find a good match because PrimeTel has gobbled up such an outsized share of the supply.

?They started by getting numbers for phone sex, then getting good numbers in general, then they started taking all phone numbers,? he said.

A spokesman for the FCC, David Fiske, would not comment on whether the agency had ever examined PrimeTel?s activities but said the commission is actively enforcing rules on number hoarding.

PrimeTel appears to have benefited by grabbing numbers associated with famous names, like 1-800-Beatles, or numbers that have recently been canceled but are still advertised widely.

From the late 1980s until around 2005, teenagers who dialed the national hotline used by Teens Teaching AIDS Prevention would reach a call center in Kansas City, Mo., where other youths were waiting to answer questions about the disease. When that program ended, the number was soon routed to one of National A-1?s sex lines. But the AIDS hotline number is still publicized by public health groups.

When New York City?s Fire Department relinquished its toll-free fire safety hotline a few years ago because of an administrative slip-up, PrimeTel grabbed it the moment it became available. Soon enough, 1-800-FIRETIP was ringing into one of National A-1?s phone-sex lines.

The same thing happened to the Cook County Jail in Chicago when it canceled its toll-free inmate information line, and to rape counseling hotlines in Maine and New Mexico.

The Republican National Committee once printed a fundraising mailer with a toll-free calling code and was publicly embarrassed when the calls began ringing in to one of National A-1?s chat lines.

It happened to Glenn Noyes, too. Shortly after the toll-free number for his auto repair business in Edgewater, Md., was mistakenly canceled by his phone company, it began redirecting customers to an erotic chat service called ?Intimate Encounters.?

?It was pretty embarrassing,? Noyes said. ?I had people walking around wearing T-shirts with that number.?

People in the telecommunications industry who are familiar with PrimeTel say that in addition to snapping up familiar 1-800 numbers, the company may be trying to capitalize on people?s fat-finger dialing mistakes by acquiring numbers that are just a digit or two away from a major company?s number.

Helein denied PrimeTel was trying to capitalize from misdials or engaged in a strategy to intercept calls made by customers of other businesses.

The key to PrimeTel?s business is its access to the entity that controls the assignment of toll-free numbers, called the 800 Service Management System. Numbers are available on a first-come, first-served basis at a cost of about 9.6 cents per month. When a customer is done using a number, it is supposed to go back into the pool for use by someone else.

FCC rules expressly ban service providers from reserving a number unless they have a genuine customer lined up to use it. Speculating in numbers is banned. They are considered public resources that may not be bought or sold. The big phone companies that supply toll-free numbers make their money not by selling the number itself but by providing telephone service.

But there are also companies that are illegally buying and selling the numbers, and they are a hot commodity, sometimes even available on eBay.

Such numbers are so highly sought-after that several companies have built powerful computer systems that search the database every day, looking for digits of potential value. Numbers can be reserved as quickly as 95 milliseconds after they are released by former users.

Helein said PrimeTel has been the target of complaints from other industry players who are ?jealous? of the company?s computer systems.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

USATODAY.com

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Porn company is amassing 1-800 numbers

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, teenagers across the U.S. could call a toll-free hotline if they had embarrassing questions about AIDS and safe sex. Dial the same number now and you get a recording of giggling women offering to talk dirty to you.

People walk by a building containing offices of PrimeTel Communications on Friday in Philadelphia.

?We both have big appetites for sex,? they purr. ?Pinch us and poke us. Spank us and tease us. We love it all. ? Enter your credit card number now.?

Those naughty misdials, and countless others like them, appear to be no accident.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers that any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.

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.

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-Metallica, 1-800-Cadillac, 1-800-Minolta, 1-800-Cameras, 1-800-Worship or 1-800-Whirlpool.

All those numbers contain messages redirecting callers to erotic chat lines operated by National A-1 Advertising, a company that shares an office building with PrimeTel, has common ownership and lists many of the same people as executives or business contacts.

Many people who mistakenly dial a phone-sex line probably just get red-faced and hang up as quickly as possible. Others apparently respond to the come-on and supply their credit card number.

?I guess enough people go for it that it makes business sense,? said Aelea Christofferson, president of ATL Communications, another company that specializes in toll-free services. Capturing callers who have reached the wrong number ? whether because they punched an incorrect digit or dialed a number without realizing it had changed hands ? is a ?big new industry,? she said.

Founded in 1995, PrimeTel is one of around 400 companies registered as toll-free service providers for the U.S. and Canada. That gives it the same power to reserve and assign unused toll-free numbers as big phone companies with millions of customers. But PrimeTel appears to be amassing numbers predominantly for one closely related partner, National A-1.

There is nothing illegal about using toll-free phone services to promote adult entertainment, and callers aren?t charged unless they supply their credit card information.

Over the years, though, PrimeTel has been hit with lawsuits and complaints alleging that it is violating federal rules banning toll-free service providers from hoarding digits. Federal Communications Commission rules say that ?routing multiple toll-free numbers to a single toll-free subscriber? is usually considered hoarding.

The FCC has never taken formal action against PrimeTel or National A-1, although federal authorities have expressed renewed interest lately in companies that handle toll-free numbers. In the fall, authorities sent subpoenas to several, including PrimeTel, asking for information on how they acquire numbers and why.

And in October, federal agents and Philadelphia police spent two days removing records from National A-1?s office suite, although it is unclear if the action was related to the phone business.

The man listed on many government records as the top executive at both PrimeTel and National A-1, Richard Cohen, declined interview requests. A lawyer for both companies, Charles Helein, would not discuss their business dealings in detail but said PrimeTel isn?t breaking any rules or engaging in prohibited practices such as selling numbers or obtaining ones it doesn?t intend to use.

?They are extremely sensitive to the FCC. ? They wouldn?t have them if they didn?t need them,? Helein said of PrimeTel?s huge pool of numbers. He said the company?s large share hasn?t caused any shortages: ?Everybody?s got all the numbers they need.?

Helein said the raid last fall was not aimed at PrimeTel. National A-1 and its owners have a variety of business enterprises headquartered at the same address, including a website sometimes used by prostitutes to advertise their services.

According to a database maintained by an industry organization, PrimeTel was listed as the administrator of record for at least 1,667,000 out of around 7.87 million active 800 numbers as of this March. Industry experts said PrimeTel also holds a dominant share of numbers with other toll-free codes, like 888 and 866, giving it several million numbers overall.

Sex isn?t the only business. Some numbers reach advertisements for a mortgage brokerage based in New Jersey. Others promote a dieting website or a travel reservation service. Those instances appear to be outnumbered by ones in which callers reach a phone-sex solicitation.

Critics of the company say it isn?t the sex that bothers them, but the acquisition of so many numbers.

Bill Quimby, whose company, TollFreeNumbers.com, specializes in helping businesses obtain easy-to-remember digits to connect with customers, said it can be a challenge to find a good match because PrimeTel has gobbled up such an outsized share of the supply.

?They started by getting numbers for phone sex, then getting good numbers in general, then they started taking all phone numbers,? he said.

A spokesman for the FCC, David Fiske, would not comment on whether the agency had ever examined PrimeTel?s activities but said the commission is actively enforcing rules on number hoarding.

PrimeTel appears to have benefited by grabbing numbers associated with famous names, like 1-800-Beatles, or numbers that have recently been canceled but are still advertised widely.

From the late 1980s until around 2005, teenagers who dialed the national hotline used by Teens Teaching AIDS Prevention would reach a call center in Kansas City, Mo., where other youths were waiting to answer questions about the disease. When that program ended, the number was soon routed to one of National A-1?s sex lines. But the AIDS hotline number is still publicized by public health groups.

When New York City?s Fire Department relinquished its toll-free fire safety hotline a few years ago because of an administrative slip-up, PrimeTel grabbed it the moment it became available. Soon enough, 1-800-FIRETIP was ringing into one of National A-1?s phone-sex lines.

The same thing happened to the Cook County Jail in Chicago when it canceled its toll-free inmate information line, and to rape counseling hotlines in Maine and New Mexico.

The Republican National Committee once printed a fundraising mailer with a toll-free calling code and was publicly embarrassed when the calls began ringing in to one of National A-1?s chat lines.

It happened to Glenn Noyes, too. Shortly after the toll-free number for his auto repair business in Edgewater, Md., was mistakenly canceled by his phone company, it began redirecting customers to an erotic chat service called ?Intimate Encounters.?

?It was pretty embarrassing,? Noyes said. ?I had people walking around wearing T-shirts with that number.?

People in the telecommunications industry who are familiar with PrimeTel say that in addition to snapping up familiar 1-800 numbers, the company may be trying to capitalize on people?s fat-finger dialing mistakes by acquiring numbers that are just a digit or two away from a major company?s number.

Helein denied PrimeTel was trying to capitalize from misdials or engaged in a strategy to intercept calls made by customers of other businesses.

The key to PrimeTel?s business is its access to the entity that controls the assignment of toll-free numbers, called the 800 Service Management System. Numbers are available on a first-come, first-served basis at a cost of about 9.6 cents per month. When a customer is done using a number, it is supposed to go back into the pool for use by someone else.

FCC rules expressly ban service providers from reserving a number unless they have a genuine customer lined up to use it. Speculating in numbers is banned. They are considered public resources that may not be bought or sold. The big phone companies that supply toll-free numbers make their money not by selling the number itself but by providing telephone service.

But there are also companies that are illegally buying and selling the numbers, and they are a hot commodity, sometimes even available on eBay.

Such numbers are so highly sought-after that several companies have built powerful computer systems that search the database every day, looking for digits of potential value. Numbers can be reserved as quickly as 95 milliseconds after they are released by former users.

Helein said PrimeTel has been the target of complaints from other industry players who are ?jealous? of the company?s computer systems.

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