National A-1 owns $1B worth of toll free numbers??! Compared to “MAFIA” by insiders :(
We are going to learn lots more on “toll free number squatting” as recent FBI and IRS raids are more than just about escorts, porn sites and domains…
“National A-1 owns six “responsible organizations,” or “resporgs,” which are allowed to purchase toll-free numbers. The six resporgs combined control 1.9 million of the 7.8 million toll-free numbers that are available. They are “playing monopoly with vanity numbers, and they make money along the way,”. The resporgs – all six are referred to as “PrimeTel” even though they have separate official names – buy but don’t sell, and are sitting on about $1 billion worth of phone numbers, Quimby added.”
Read the entire story over at Philly.com
Who knew that these guys owned 25% of all 800 numbers… ??! Crazy if you ask me. According to Bill Quimby, a seasoned veteran 800 marketer, owner of TollFreeNumbers.com and native of NY: “Primetel / National A-1 has literally hundreds of multi-million dollar numbers on par with 1-800 FLOWERS and tens of thousands of numbers worth well into five figures.”
Gnanes
October 29, 2010
Article doesn’t really say much about what the raid was all about.
TollFreeNumbers founder is just an idiot IMHO. He’s just getting himself into legal trouble.
Mikey B
October 29, 2010
Why do you say that Gnanes? HOw is he getting himself into trouble?
Also, how can I buy toll free numbers? I searched the Net, but did not find a clear explanation. It seems everyone wants to lease these numbers, but nobody wants to explain how to buy them.
I leased a number from Quimby about 10 years ago, so I know there is money in this.
Gnanes
October 29, 2010
Lately I have been reading news about people taken to court over comments posted on YouTube or Blog. For ex. Search the Google for “Officerbubbles”
Here’s some quotes from the article:
“They forge paperwork, yank numbers; they don’t care what other people think about them.”
There are “isolated stories in the news media that pop up every once in a while that a number that belonged to a nice church or a White House press briefing now belongs to a phone-sex company,” Quimby said.
Jeff
October 29, 2010
“TollFreeNumbers founder is just an idiot IMHO. He’s just getting himself into legal trouble.”
Legal trouble as in 100+ FBI agents showing to your door? You’re the idiot IMHO. Truth is an absolute defense in USA, and somehow I doubt that Nat A1 is that eager to be subpoenaed by the person the sue. The requests for documents and people can be extremely detailed, especially if it involves allegations of fraud.
And if they bought used 800 numbers to send old people to sex lines, I wish they had sent 100,000 feds to shut them down.
P.S. When you are involved with porn and other borderline businesses you have almost certainly broken a few federal laws. It’s the nature of the beast and laws may be unfair but it is how it is.
Attila
October 30, 2010
I had a run in with Bill Quimby. Didn’t know he was a native New Yorker. Guess that explains his lack in customer service for paying customers which makes him an asshole rather then an appreciative business owner.
Joe
October 30, 2010
Now I may just have found a buyer for 800sexvillage.
Bill Quimby
October 30, 2010
The reporter took the Mafia analogy out of context. I said that they make a ton of money in a vice type of business, which means they’re not dealing with the best part of society, and they don’t care what the rest of the world thinks of them. They make a lot of cash they have a lot of power and are used to getting what they want and they hide their business. It was an analogy which some validity. When you leave off the explanation as the reporter did, it gives it a very different meaning.
The issue about forging paperwork is an identity theft case that I am told a district attorney in California was pursuing in conjunction with the FCC. It’s not related to what the police, FBI and IRS would be looking for.
Would you like to see a small piece of their vanity number list? It’s too long to list here in a comment but I don’t think there’s any issue with listing it since I did the research myself and didn’t get it from Primetel directly. I think it would be helpful to the industry to pull the curtain back a little.
I would also point out that I don’t criticize Primetel. I respect what they’ve been able to do for sure. But I think leaving them unchecked hurts the whole industry.
Another big issue for domain namers is 855 numbers. It’s been impossible to get a matching toll free number for most of your good domain names but a couple weeks ago 855 numbers were released and there are tremendous opportunities in that. We’ve helped thousands of customers get great 855 numbers and 98.5% are still available!
kouchilou
December 13, 2010
The fact that so many toll-free numbers are being hoarded, really speaks to its true power. Although I do not condone this sort of action, it just goes to show you what a valuable commodity vanity numbers have become, and how beneficial they are to businesses of all shapes and sizes.