Tracing payphone numbers to their exact location was never meant to be easy but over the last year it’s become a lot harder — if not impossible for most people. This because Pacific Telemanagement Services (PTS) — the new king of payphones in the United States — has programmed its payphones to send fake caller ID information. This intentional obfuscation makes it look like calls made from PTS payphones in New York City, Los Angeles, or anywhere in between actually originated from Las Vegas, Nevada. If you got a call from (702) 992-9550 then the call probably did not originate from Las Vegas. It came from “a payphone located in the United States.”

I don’t know if other payphone providers in the United States program their phones this way but payphones owned by other independent providers in New York (Titan, EHUC, Telebeam, etc.) do not send out spoofed caller ID information, nor do Verizon’s remaining payphones.

Phone numbers are not as iconic as they used to be. Area codes today often give no clue as to where in the world a call is coming from, making it less common and even unexpected for area codes to approximate a caller’s physical location. Even the errant (and foolish) snobbery about owning a fabled (212) area code number has deservedly faded into the cranky oblivion of nostalgia. There really are no “cool” area codes any more, and our most frequently called telephones numbers are seldom memorized or even recognized. I would bet that the only phone numbers most people have memorized are their own.

Still, a call made from a New York City landline telephone with an actual local phone number assigned to it seems like it should display that telephone number to the person being called. This information is presumably made available to law enforcement and emergency responders if someone uses a PTS payphone to contact 911 (assuming they can find a PTS payphone that works). But to the caller ID of ordinary people the number is hidden. This practice (which may serve some corporate or perhaps national security interest) appears to be a new opportunity for prank callers, heavy breathers and even telemarketers to reach people with virtually no chance of being traced.

Calling (702) 992-9550 returns this opaque recorded message. Click to listen:

“If you received a call with a caller ID of 702-992-9550 you received a call made by an individual using a payphone located in the United States. If this is law enforcement needing further information please send an e-mail request to cheryllundy@sbcglobal.net.”

I have had no reason to send an e-mail request to that e-mail address, but from the sound of this message it seems that ordinary people who might receive harassing or unwanted calls from (702) 992-9550 are not invited to contact cheryllundy@sbcglobal.net and would probably be ignored if they did. The scary-sounding message, targeted to law enforcement, dumps a murky burden of suspicion on virtually any call received from a PTS payphone.

The actual payphone numbers appear on the phones themselves, but the unique PPT (Public Pay Telephone) identifier does not, as seen on this Times Square Payphone:

This practice of intentionally obfuscating caller ID information in this manner seems strange, but a similar scenario existed several years ago. In those days the phone number (312) 730-9978 showed on caller ID devices all over the world, confusing people as to who was calling them from the (312) area code of Chicago.

It turned (312) 730-9978 was one of several numbers displayed on caller ID when a call was made using an AT&T pre-paid calling card. That practice of spoofing caller ID information when using calling cards seems to have ended. If enough people express concern or dismay about PTS’s practice of spoofing caller ID then maybe it, too, will be a passing trend.

Many people who see an unknown number from strange location appear on their phone will likely choose not to answer the call. One might be even less likely to answer a call that appears to originate from a city which, for some, has a tawdry reputation (Las Vegas is “Sin City”, after all). I can already hear the accusatory conversations: “No, really, I’m in Oakland.” “Well then why does it say you’re calling from Las Vegas? Huh?!? Why are you lying to me?”

Those who receive unwanted phone calls apparently originating from Las Vegas now face the confusing task of determining that the call did not really originate from Las Vegas. If such folks need more action they are welcome to commence the laborious process of consulting law enforcement (or cheryllundy@sbcglobal.net) to get some clue as to what is going on.