ShareThisBy MICHAEL HEWLETT
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
"Hello honey, looking for hot talk?" says a soft female voice.
It's not what callers would expect to hear when they dial the toll-free number that had been listed on Fred McClure's insurance company Web site until he discovered it this week.
McClure said he was horrified when he found out about the phone problem Monday.
"It's on all my cards, and it's on the Web site," he said.
McClure owns McClure Insurance Group and has had the 800 number for years, he said.
McClure Insurance Group began long-distance service with Lexcom Communications in 1994, but McClure switched to Sprint in 1995, said Richard Reese, the president of Lexcom Communications.
Whenever a person or company switches telephone carriers, their numbers are supposed to transfer to the new carrier, Reese said. That happened when McClure switched to Sprint, he said.
But McClure made several other switches over the next few years, and at some point, a telephone carrier failed to transfer the 800 number and it got lost, Reese said. Then it was reassigned,
Reese said he has no way of knowing which carrier failed to transfer the number or when it was assigned to the phone-sex line.
McClure said he is embarrassed that the mistake happened and had never heard complaints from anyone who might have called his company's toll-free number.
