212-477-3063 Revisited

I had not paid much mind to hit reports or traffic to this website in a long time. My way of checking site activity is to keep a “tail –f access_log” window open. It is kind of a grubby view but it lets me feel something of a live connection to things, and to take stock of how much garbage traffic comes from botnets and zombie referer_spam. But it was interesting a few months ago to filter out all the junk and see which pages were accessed most often by actual humans.

The most accessed post here is the story from last year, in which I explain where calls from the phone number (212) 477-3063 originate. Calls from that phone number originate from LinkNYC kiosks, the so-called “payphone of the future” which (if you can find one that works) allow for free phone calls to almost any phone number in the United States. Calls from any LinkNYC unit (there are presently about 1100) will send (212) 477-3063 to the CallerID of the phone being called.

Evidently 212-477-3063 is showing up on phones all over the place and some people, upon seeing a strange number on their phone, are looking it up online, probably thinking the number is from a telemarketing scam or other nuisance. Those online searches might lead to this site or to Twitter, where a couple of people have contacted me to ask if I know anything about calls they received from that phone number. In one exchange (which seems to have been deleted) a man posted to @payphonenews and @LinkNYC asking what to do about harassing calls he’d been receiving from LinkNYC kiosks. In response @LinkNYC told him to contact law enforcement.

Sending out fake CallerID is legal in the U.S., unless it is being done with the intention of causing harm or committing fraud. Simply sending out fake CallerID from LinkNYC kiosks is in itself not harmful or fraudulent, but one can see where fraudsters and prank callers would gravitate to LinkNYC’s free phone call feature for its location-concealing obfuscation. It would be interesting to know what kind of unwanted calls are originating from these things, or if CallerID-spoofing fraudsters have not tagged 212-477-3063 as a safe number to hijack. Whatever the case, if you received an unexpected or unwanted call from this number there is no way to know exactly where it came from, since all LinkNYC kiosks send out the same CallerID.

I recently made the acquaintance of Miss Heather, whose website ThatGreenpointBlog.com has crossed my radar many times over the years. She now finds herself in the unfortunate albeit sometimes entertaining position of having a LinkNYC kiosk placed right outside her apartment window. Since the kiosk was activated she has been voicing objections and observations on her Twitter page, posting what appear to be prank calls and evidence of drug deals made from the kiosk. We seem to think alike when imagining the possibilities for new kinds of havoc made possible by these devices, and not just in terms of quality of life issues. Here are some highlights from her Twitter page: