Misdialed call
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A misdialed call or wrong number is a
telephone call A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network A telephone network is a telecommunications network that connects telephones, which allows telephone calls between two or more parties, as well as newer features such as fax and interne ...
to an incorrect
telephone number A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...
. This may occur because the number has been physically misdialled, the number is simply incorrect, or because the
area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...
or ownership of the number has changed. In
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
,
toll-free number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefi ...
s are a frequent source of wrong numbers because they often have a history of prior ownership. In the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, many misdialled calls have been due to public confusion over the dialing codes for some areas.


Etiquette

The recipient of a wrong number is usually unknown to the caller. This aspect has been used in
social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
experiments designed to study the willingness of people to help strangers, and the extent to which this is affected by characteristics such as
race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
. This experimental method is known as the " wrong-number technique". Proper telephone
etiquette Etiquette () is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a ...
recommends that the wrongly dialed party
politely Politely (foaled 1963 in Maryland) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. She was bred by Allaire du Pont and raced under her Bohemia Stable banner. Her sire, Amerigo, a son of the great Nearco, was a stakes winner of races in England and the ...
inform the caller of that fact, and also that the caller apologize rather than simply
hanging up ''Hanging Up'' is a 2000 American comedy-drama film about a trio of sisters bonding over their curmudgeonly father with whom none of them were close. It was directed by Diane Keaton, and stars Keaton, Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow and Walter Matthau in ...
. Often the two parties will confirm whether or not the intended number is indeed the number that was reached (e.g. "Is this 555-0184?") before ending the call. It is widely considered "dangerous" for the called party to disclose their phone number — rather it is considered more prudent to require the calling party to state which number they dialed and for the called party to simply confirm whether or not that is their number. Though this can also be considered irrelevant if a phone has a list of outgoing phone numbers it called, and/or already has the dialed number on the screen's display (whether they were intentional, or by accident) as many modern phones do, thus would unintentionally reveal what the falsely dialed phone number was anyway without the called party disclosing it too.


Technical considerations

On a
landline A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...
, wrong numbers incur no toll for the recipient but do represent the annoyance of answering an unwanted call. This may be problematic for
shift work Shift work is an employment practice designed to make use of, or provide service across, all 24 hours of the clock each day of the week (often abbreviated as '' 24/7''). The practice typically sees the day divided into shifts, set periods of ...
ers who are asleep during the day. On
cellphone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
s in countries where mobile plans charge for incoming calls, a wrong number may cost the subscriber one or more minutes. Sources of misdialled calls are similar to sources of
typographical error A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called a misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling mistake) made in the typing of printed (or electronic) material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual type-setting (typography). ...
: *Pressing one or more wrong keys on the keypad of the phone (example 2379 rather than 2349) *Pressing a key on the
dialpad Dialling (dialing in US English) is the action of initiating a telephone call by operating the rotary dial or the telephone keypad of a telephone. Rotary dial Prior to Strowgers invention of SXS, rotary switch in 1891, telephone connections involv ...
more times than appears in succession in the phone number, thereby completing the length of the number prior to completing the intended number (example 7522-7 with the final 7 being ignored rather than 7527) *Transposing digits in the phone number (example 3416 rather than 3146)


Fictional numbers

The use of local telephone numbers in mainstream fictional works is problematic as the number will often belong to one or more real subscribers in various other
area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...
s. Well-known fictional numbers like 867-5309 (Jenny's number, from a popular 1982 song) and 776-2323 (God's number in the 2003 cinema release of ''
Bruce Almighty ''Bruce Almighty'' is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to God ...
'') continue to receive misdialled calls years later. This is often avoided by using reserved or invalid numbers (such as 555 (telephone number)), or by displaying a real area code and number which belongs to the publisher of the fictional work.


Emergency numbers

Inadvertent calls to
emergency telephone number Most public switched telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number (sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or the emergency services number) that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assista ...
s are problematic as, if the dispatcher is uncertain of the nature of a presumed emergency, police are rapidly dispatched to the address on an
enhanced 9-1-1 Enhanced 911, E-911 or E911 is a system used in North America to automatically provide the caller's location to 9-1-1, 911 dispatchers. 911 is the universal emergency telephone number in the region. In the European Union, a similar system exists kn ...
or 1-1-2 call. Most often, these calls tie up resources which need to be available for emergency response - especially if the caller is silent or disconnects the call without acknowledging the error. In
Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...
, a 2012 change which forced subscribers to dial the 919 area code on local calls caused a 20% increase in total calls to
9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...
, a result of frequent misdials.


Toll-free numbers

Misdialled calls are problematic for
toll-free telephone number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefi ...
subscribers, who must pay long-distance tolls to receive the calls and pay staff to answer misdirected enquiries. A small, local business whose toll-free number differs in one digit from a large national franchise will typically receive multiple misdialled calls daily. In some cases, commercial rivals have engaged in wilful
typosquatting Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, a sting site, or a fake URL, is a form of cybersquatting, and possibly brandjacking which relies on mistakes such as typos made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser. Shoul ...
to profit from misdial traffic. If 1-800-HOLIDAY (+1-800-465-4329) is
Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...
, an unscrupulous vendor could register 1-800-H0LIDAY (+1-800-405-4329, the same number with 'o' replaced by 'zero'), resell bookings for rooms in the same or a rival hotel and collect a profitable
travel agent A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinatio ...
's commission. Some franchise chains have resorted to the defensive registration of complementary numbers, the commonly misdialled variants of their main number, as a defense against the typosquatters. A similar issue exists with toll-free number hoarding. One marketer can create multiple shell companies to operate as
RespOrg In the North American Numbering Plan, a RespOrg (a contraction for responsible organization) is a company that maintains the registration for individual toll-free telephone numbers in the distributed Service Management System/800 database. Their fun ...
s and register toll-free numbers as soon as their previous users disconnect service. Callers to millions of these numbers are connected not to the desired party but to an advertisement, such as the PrimeTel Communications promotions for costly phone sex numbers. By tying up millions of easily remembered numbers, these schemes force businesses to use
overlay plan Overlay may refer to: Computers *Overlay network, a computer network which is built on top of another network *Hardware overlay, one type of video overlay that uses memory dedicated to the application *Another term for exec, replacing one process ...
area codes or numbers without
mnemonic A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...
phoneword Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the correspondin ...
s. Deployment of multiple toll-free area codes further increases the probability of misdial calls as a common wrong number pattern is to call the +1-800- version of a number which is actually in another area code. In 2009,
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
advertised +1-877-CLUNKER (1-877-258-6537) to promote a $3 billion U.S. federal "cash for clunkers" program. Judy Van Fossan of The Flower Corner in
Clinton, Illinois Clinton is the largest city in DeWitt County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,225 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of DeWitt County. The city and the county are named for DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York, 1817–182 ...
, a tiny local shop which owned 1-800-CLUNKER (+1-800-258-6537), was inundated with more than 150 wrong numbers daily. As of 2013, this florist is advertising a local number only; as the vehicle
scrappage program A scrappage program is a government budget programme to promote the replacement of old vehicles with modern vehicles. Scrappage programmes generally have the dual aim of stimulating the automobile industry and removing inefficient, more polluting v ...
ended in 2009, the abandoned +1-800/888/877 CLUNKER
phoneword Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the correspondin ...
s are now typosquatted as Primetel numbers. While prohibitions on hoarding, brokering and warehousing numbers exist both in the US (under FCC regulations) and Australia (under ACMA) enforcement has been non-existent except in the most egregious cases, such as registering distinctive phone-words (like +1-800-RED-CROSS) in order to attempt to sell or lease the numbers to the named organization or its local chapters.


In popular culture

Misdialled calls serve as a plot device in 1948 film ''
Sorry, Wrong Number ''Sorry, Wrong Number'' is a 1948 American thriller film noir directed by Anatole Litvak, from a screenplay by Lucille Fletcher, based on her 1943 radio play of the same name. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. It follows a ...
'', in television such as in the
Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...
episode "
Sorry, Wrong Number ''Sorry, Wrong Number'' is a 1948 American thriller film noir directed by Anatole Litvak, from a screenplay by Lucille Fletcher, based on her 1943 radio play of the same name. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. It follows a ...
" and in the
Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...
episode "
The Pool Guy "The Pool Guy" is the 118th episode of NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld''. This was the eighth episode of the seventh season. It aired on November 16, 1995. The end credit states "In Memory of our Friend Rick Bolden". Rick Bolden was one of the musicians wh ...
". They are also used on the
Touch-Tone Terrorists Touch-Tone Terrorists is a series of CDs featuring prank phone calls, released from 1998 to 2015. About The Touch-Tone Terrorists are actually one man, Pete Dzoghi, who also goes by the name RePete. He purchased a series of 1-800 numbers, inclu ...
prank call CD series. They also figure in the name of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number top-down action game by
Dennaton Games Dennaton Games is an independent Swedish video game developer founded by programmer Jonatan Söderström and artist Dennis Wedin. The company name is a portmanteau of the founders' names. History Jonatan Söderström is an indie game develope ...
.


See also

* Phone calls from the dead *
Pocket dialing Pocket dialing (also known as pocket calling or butt dialing) is the accidental placement of a phone call while a person's mobile phone or cordless phone is in the owner's pocket or handbag. The recipient of the call typically hears random backg ...


References

{{Telephony Telephony User errors