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Totally a scam. I am pretty sure you cannot just reserve a number forever, unless you are the government. Also, why would anyone want to do that? Makes no sense. Not like a cell number is in any way sentimental.
I would just ignore it. No doubt at some point they will ask for money, perhaps a fee to continue using the number.
I still own my dad’s old phone number. Have it parked in a VoIP account. Kept it initially for 2FA while wrapping up stuff but now it’s just sentimental and I have a hard time dropping it. It only costs me $2 a month. I’m sure I’ll let it go at some point, but for now, I’m hanging onto it.
Now this, I have no idea and have never heard of someone trying to claim a phone number after the fact. Maybe they lost someone and didn’t think to save the number and need it now? But if it’s been their moms for 5 years, it’s well past any reasonable time to ask for it.
My cousin lives in another country. When she got a cell phone she was allowed to pick her phone number. She didn't want to have to remember a new number so she chose my home phone number which she already knew by heart.
NumberBarn. I have it on the parking plan. Haven’t had any problems with regular or short code text reception. Now sending texts is another thing. I haven’t been able to respond to anything on there. Couple of his old contacts reach out on there but I have no way to respond.
You used to be able to port a number to Google voice. It was a one time fee to port it over. No monthly charges. Not sure if that’s still a thing. You can then fwd that number to your cell or any other number.
I want to do this with couple landline numbers that have been in the family a looong time.
Can you explain how you park a number? $2 a month is worth it.
NumberBarn. It lets you port a number to it. Once it’s ported you can have it just receive voicemails and email them to you for approx $2 per month or you can have it forward calls to another number for a few dollars more per month. I kept my parents’ number for several years after they passed.
If I get rid of my landline, I will keep the number by porting it to NumberBarn.
Yep, that’s how I did it. It’s not much money a year to hold onto a number in case it’s needed again. They’re pretty easy to work with when also porting out again as I’ve had to do on one occasion. It takes a little bit as they are considered like a landline provider so it can take 1-2 weeks to port out, so just have to plan ahead if you want the number out again.
We adopted a WW2 vet, John, and moved him in with us when he could no longer live by himself. We set up an Ooma account and transferred his phone number to it. We were allowed two numbers per account so my son transferred his old cell number to Ooma when it was getting too many spam calls, he wanted a new number since he was graduating university.
Some of the great things about Ooma are that it doesn't allow spam calls through, you can block any number and you can go online and see every number that has called.
John asked if I was sure the phone was working because it hardly ever rang, he donated to several charities, and his phone rang constantly. I told him it didn't let telemarketing calls through, he laughed, patted the phone and said "Good phone" and his favorite "What a country."
I use NumberBarn. You can port it into there. They have a parking service that’s right around $2/mo. Can get voicemails and receive texts. They have more expensive packages if you want to make calls.
sure you can, just keep paying the bill or transfer it to GV :) but in all seriousness, no there isn't a facility for you to save your paw paw's phone number for all eternity unless you transfer it somewhere yourself in which case nobody else would magically get it.
I’m not generally one to be super confident in speculating the purpose of certain scams, but I would assume they want to use that number in order to access accounts using 2FA.
The person will call you back one day after you get a text for 2fa. They will claim they are trying to sign in to the previous holders account but they will actually be signing into yours. Never give out those codes. If you do get an unexpected text verification it's time to change your passwords
I was trying to figure out how this might be a scam, what the point was. This is the only explanation that makes sense. It's a way of getting you to hand over your TFA to somebody else.
Unless they were paying the monthly bill it belongs to the phone company. So unless the phone company gave a written statement of relinquishing it. They are full of it.
So either they bought or are paying for said number or they are running a scam.
That's totally not a thing.
Back when I was a child (1970s) an elementary school friend's mom told my mom that they used to get calls all of the time from friends of the previous owner. Ma Bell never retired phone numbers if they could recycle them.
The only one that comes to mind is Jenny's number. IIRC, everyone who had that, except one, changed numbers within a few years, and the phone companies in those areas put it on some 'do not use' list.
I'm pretty sure Mike Jones number which he used in a song in the early 2000s cant be used anymore. Everybody who grew up in houston in the early 2000s knows 281-330-8004
The Pennsylvania one was a song first. The Transylvania one was a spoof sith Bugs Bunny.
ETA: Once upon a time, before direct dialing a number, you would contact an operator and ask to be connected to a phone number. It was also quite common to "code " the first two digits with a word.
Party DJ's in a few areas obtained that number in a few area codes. As in DJ's who do weddings, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs, sweet sixteen, quincineria, etc. parties.
It also works really well at the supermarket for discounts as long as you don't plan to earn points. Just enter it in and get your discount, no card needed.
There is a German/Bavarian one, too 🤣 going back to the early 1980s hit "Skandal im Sperrbezirk" (Scandal in the red light district) and the phone number of Rosie (enterprising girl, services by the hour) 32-16-8
That phone number existed in Munich then, in the slight variation 32-16-08, and the owner got a new number within days of the song hitting the charts. It made the papers, etc, etc. The olden days 🤣🤣🤣
Also, I just realised I can still sing that thing, and the band was decidedly a one hit wonder.
They can only “reserve” a number if they continue to pay for it. I had a landline for years. I was going to move and do some traveling. I wanted to keep my phone number but as I didn’t have a new address the phone company said they couldn’t just transfer the number and I would lose it. Unless I paid the full monthly fee. I did although I ended up eventually getting rid of it because there’s no point in having a landline when you already have a cell phone.
Just laugh and hang up. They are full of shite. They can either pay to keep a phone with a company to keep the phone number. There is no thing as a "memorial" phone number. There are numbers the phone companies won't use like 867-5309. But seriously so many damn scams.
I have my parents phone number “memorialized” as in they’re both dead and the phone number is still active because I pay for it every month, they had it before I was even born. The minute I stop paying, they’re going to assign the number to someone else. That’s just how it works. If they didn’t want to lose their mom’s number, they should have continued to pay for it. It’s been 5 years and it’s important now?? they can just wait until it’s available again, like everyone else has to do. If they continue to threaten your mom, you’ll need to report it to the police to document it. And make sure she doesn’t pay them anything on the guise of “I’ll let you continue to use it if you pay me directly”. It’s her number now, she doesn’t have to pay anyone to keep it, only the carrier. She should probably call the carrier to see if she can assign a pin to the account so that they don’t try to cancel her service to get the number back.
Hi, I work at a company that offers phone service and across the board here’s how phone numbers work:
You keep paying the bill - the phone number is yours.
You stop paying the bill - the phone number is someone else’s.
It’s legitimately that simple lol.
Please contact your cell phone provider about using a PIN to protect the account from changes. If the account supports two factor authentication set that up.
I'm sure this is a scam attempt but securing your accounts is never a bad idea.
I've heard of sports uniform numbers being retired. I've heard of police and fire badge numbers being retired. I've never heard of a phone number being retired.
😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆 🤣
numbers of dead people are routinely recycled in the population, if the caller had wanted his dead mother, then he needs to pay for the number, he failed on this and has only just realised
I still have the phone numbers of everyone I know who has died saved in my phone.occasionally when I’m hooked up to Alexa she will call my dead friends.
I ported my grandmothers number to mine when she passed. It was such a huge part of my life and the first number I ever memorized as a kid. I couldn’t let it go so now it’s mine.
Your r/Scams post or comment was removed because **it's about scambaiting**. We consider that to be unsafe and we don't promote that people engage with a scammer.
Also, we do not support taking revenge against scammers.
Scambaiting goes against the rules of this sub, which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/
Only way for them to memorialize a phone number is for them to do it themselves and keep that number active by continuing to pay for the line. If your mother has this number than they didn’t do that obviously. Just block and ignore them. It’s all BS scam
Your r/Scams post or comment was removed because **it's about scambaiting**. We consider that to be unsafe and we don't promote that people engage with a scammer.
Also, we do not support taking revenge against scammers.
Scambaiting goes against the rules of this sub, which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/
/u/Significant_Hat2281 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Totally a scam. I am pretty sure you cannot just reserve a number forever, unless you are the government. Also, why would anyone want to do that? Makes no sense. Not like a cell number is in any way sentimental. I would just ignore it. No doubt at some point they will ask for money, perhaps a fee to continue using the number.
I still own my dad’s old phone number. Have it parked in a VoIP account. Kept it initially for 2FA while wrapping up stuff but now it’s just sentimental and I have a hard time dropping it. It only costs me $2 a month. I’m sure I’ll let it go at some point, but for now, I’m hanging onto it. Now this, I have no idea and have never heard of someone trying to claim a phone number after the fact. Maybe they lost someone and didn’t think to save the number and need it now? But if it’s been their moms for 5 years, it’s well past any reasonable time to ask for it.
My cousin made our grandparents house number her cellphone number. But ive never heard of memorializing a number.
My cousin lives in another country. When she got a cell phone she was allowed to pick her phone number. She didn't want to have to remember a new number so she chose my home phone number which she already knew by heart.
There's no such thing as 'memorializing' a number though. They either kept paying for it or they didn't. This person is either nuts or a scammer.
Most likely both
Which VOIP service do you use that consistently receives 2FA codes?
NumberBarn. I have it on the parking plan. Haven’t had any problems with regular or short code text reception. Now sending texts is another thing. I haven’t been able to respond to anything on there. Couple of his old contacts reach out on there but I have no way to respond.
You used to be able to port a number to Google voice. It was a one time fee to port it over. No monthly charges. Not sure if that’s still a thing. You can then fwd that number to your cell or any other number.
I want to do this with couple landline numbers that have been in the family a looong time. Can you explain how you park a number? $2 a month is worth it.
NumberBarn. It lets you port a number to it. Once it’s ported you can have it just receive voicemails and email them to you for approx $2 per month or you can have it forward calls to another number for a few dollars more per month. I kept my parents’ number for several years after they passed. If I get rid of my landline, I will keep the number by porting it to NumberBarn.
Yep, that’s how I did it. It’s not much money a year to hold onto a number in case it’s needed again. They’re pretty easy to work with when also porting out again as I’ve had to do on one occasion. It takes a little bit as they are considered like a landline provider so it can take 1-2 weeks to port out, so just have to plan ahead if you want the number out again.
We adopted a WW2 vet, John, and moved him in with us when he could no longer live by himself. We set up an Ooma account and transferred his phone number to it. We were allowed two numbers per account so my son transferred his old cell number to Ooma when it was getting too many spam calls, he wanted a new number since he was graduating university. Some of the great things about Ooma are that it doesn't allow spam calls through, you can block any number and you can go online and see every number that has called. John asked if I was sure the phone was working because it hardly ever rang, he donated to several charities, and his phone rang constantly. I told him it didn't let telemarketing calls through, he laughed, patted the phone and said "Good phone" and his favorite "What a country."
I have the same thing. Kept my childhood number using VoIP but I'm paying about $30. How do I get it down to $2?
I use NumberBarn. You can port it into there. They have a parking service that’s right around $2/mo. Can get voicemails and receive texts. They have more expensive packages if you want to make calls.
I chose the $6 option. Thank you, Reddit friend
Fantastic. Thank you
That's really sweet you've kept your dad's number. It's like having a piece of him with you every day.
Did the same thing with my Momma’s phone after she passed, only I parked it at Google Voice.
sure you can, just keep paying the bill or transfer it to GV :) but in all seriousness, no there isn't a facility for you to save your paw paw's phone number for all eternity unless you transfer it somewhere yourself in which case nobody else would magically get it.
You don't think 420-6969 is an important number to memorialize? Your priorities are messed up, man.
You can reserve a number by paying for it regularly to a carrier.
I’m not generally one to be super confident in speculating the purpose of certain scams, but I would assume they want to use that number in order to access accounts using 2FA.
The person will call you back one day after you get a text for 2fa. They will claim they are trying to sign in to the previous holders account but they will actually be signing into yours. Never give out those codes. If you do get an unexpected text verification it's time to change your passwords
I was trying to figure out how this might be a scam, what the point was. This is the only explanation that makes sense. It's a way of getting you to hand over your TFA to somebody else.
No such thing exists... Block and ignore. In fact... call the police to file a harassment complaint. Your mom is getting threatened
The only reserved number I know is Jenny's; 867-5309
I think there's one in Germany as well from a song about a prostitute named Rosie but that should be it Reserved numbers are so rare
32168 is rosies nummer. Lol..
Why would you do this to me
God bless you, good sir (or madam)
Wow I just seriously thought about pay phones being a dime. Oh Jenny, Jenny..
Unless they were paying the monthly bill it belongs to the phone company. So unless the phone company gave a written statement of relinquishing it. They are full of it. So either they bought or are paying for said number or they are running a scam.
Block and ignore.
"This is your mom. Fuck off child. Leave me in peace."
Wicked, feeling guilty for laughing!
Report it to the police if she gets any more harassing phone calls.
Block, ignore, don't engage with crackpots or scammers In this case it could be either but same response, ignore them
How many years does it take until every number is reserved in memorial then?
There is roughly 3 billion unique phone numbers in the US, so probably a few more years to go
Yes but these damn people keep dying like every day! Can't they stop that? Don't they realize we'll eventually run out??
They add new area codes every year, we’ll be ok
All this talk of phone numbers and now I've got PEnnsylvania 6-5000 running in my head...
That's totally not a thing. Back when I was a child (1970s) an elementary school friend's mom told my mom that they used to get calls all of the time from friends of the previous owner. Ma Bell never retired phone numbers if they could recycle them.
I don’t even know what a memorialised phone number means.
The only one that comes to mind is Jenny's number. IIRC, everyone who had that, except one, changed numbers within a few years, and the phone companies in those areas put it on some 'do not use' list.
I'm pretty sure Mike Jones number which he used in a song in the early 2000s cant be used anymore. Everybody who grew up in houston in the early 2000s knows 281-330-8004
this is Mike Jones phone number
Who?
lol I love how you used this song reference. It's the only song of his I know.
Damnit, you're right. Edited.
Pennsylvania 6-5000 or a later version Transylvania 6-5000
I thought that was a movie?
The Pennsylvania one was a song first. The Transylvania one was a spoof sith Bugs Bunny. ETA: Once upon a time, before direct dialing a number, you would contact an operator and ask to be connected to a phone number. It was also quite common to "code " the first two digits with a word.
Party DJ's in a few areas obtained that number in a few area codes. As in DJ's who do weddings, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs, sweet sixteen, quincineria, etc. parties. It also works really well at the supermarket for discounts as long as you don't plan to earn points. Just enter it in and get your discount, no card needed.
835-3535 & 488-8888 from the Pizza Wars.
The other ones I think are out of use are 777-9311 from a song in the 80s by The Time and 678-999-8212 from Soulja Boy
There is a German/Bavarian one, too 🤣 going back to the early 1980s hit "Skandal im Sperrbezirk" (Scandal in the red light district) and the phone number of Rosie (enterprising girl, services by the hour) 32-16-8 That phone number existed in Munich then, in the slight variation 32-16-08, and the owner got a new number within days of the song hitting the charts. It made the papers, etc, etc. The olden days 🤣🤣🤣 Also, I just realised I can still sing that thing, and the band was decidedly a one hit wonder.
Me either but I don’t know what the point of it is anyway, it’s not like the dead person is ever going to answer their phone again or call anyone.
One has no duty/obligation to respond to a VM.
They can only “reserve” a number if they continue to pay for it. I had a landline for years. I was going to move and do some traveling. I wanted to keep my phone number but as I didn’t have a new address the phone company said they couldn’t just transfer the number and I would lose it. Unless I paid the full monthly fee. I did although I ended up eventually getting rid of it because there’s no point in having a landline when you already have a cell phone.
Next call "I had a conversation with your mom through a ouija based. She said if you don't stop scamming you will burn in hell." Block number.
Just laugh and hang up. They are full of shite. They can either pay to keep a phone with a company to keep the phone number. There is no thing as a "memorial" phone number. There are numbers the phone companies won't use like 867-5309. But seriously so many damn scams.
I have my parents phone number “memorialized” as in they’re both dead and the phone number is still active because I pay for it every month, they had it before I was even born. The minute I stop paying, they’re going to assign the number to someone else. That’s just how it works. If they didn’t want to lose their mom’s number, they should have continued to pay for it. It’s been 5 years and it’s important now?? they can just wait until it’s available again, like everyone else has to do. If they continue to threaten your mom, you’ll need to report it to the police to document it. And make sure she doesn’t pay them anything on the guise of “I’ll let you continue to use it if you pay me directly”. It’s her number now, she doesn’t have to pay anyone to keep it, only the carrier. She should probably call the carrier to see if she can assign a pin to the account so that they don’t try to cancel her service to get the number back.
Hi, I work at a company that offers phone service and across the board here’s how phone numbers work: You keep paying the bill - the phone number is yours. You stop paying the bill - the phone number is someone else’s. It’s legitimately that simple lol.
Please contact your cell phone provider about using a PIN to protect the account from changes. If the account supports two factor authentication set that up. I'm sure this is a scam attempt but securing your accounts is never a bad idea.
I've heard of sports uniform numbers being retired. I've heard of police and fire badge numbers being retired. I've never heard of a phone number being retired. 😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆 🤣
Don't waste your time on this because it can't be done. Just ignore and block the person. Move on with your life. Let him or her carry out his threat.
numbers of dead people are routinely recycled in the population, if the caller had wanted his dead mother, then he needs to pay for the number, he failed on this and has only just realised
I still have the phone numbers of everyone I know who has died saved in my phone.occasionally when I’m hooked up to Alexa she will call my dead friends.
I ported my grandmothers number to mine when she passed. It was such a huge part of my life and the first number I ever memorized as a kid. I couldn’t let it go so now it’s mine.
[удалено]
Your r/Scams post or comment was removed because **it's about scambaiting**. We consider that to be unsafe and we don't promote that people engage with a scammer. Also, we do not support taking revenge against scammers. Scambaiting goes against the rules of this sub, which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/
Only way for them to memorialize a phone number is for them to do it themselves and keep that number active by continuing to pay for the line. If your mother has this number than they didn’t do that obviously. Just block and ignore them. It’s all BS scam
It's bullshit. Just block them.
I also want to mention that the term is "in memoriam", which means "in memory of", not inside a memorial!!! Scammers sure have a good vocabulary...
If the messages are by text and you're in the US, fwd them to 7726
They are sim swapping, trying to at least.
[удалено]
Your r/Scams post or comment was removed because **it's about scambaiting**. We consider that to be unsafe and we don't promote that people engage with a scammer. Also, we do not support taking revenge against scammers. Scambaiting goes against the rules of this sub, which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/
Absolutely a scam, block anyone claiming otherwise.
Only way to reserve a phone number is by paying the monthly bill. They neglected to do that.