Don the unRachel said I had great credit and could lower my current card rates blah blah. This is the second such call after I mistakenly clicked on a Yahoo "credit card comparison for people with good credit" link (wanted news story to the left). So I no longer use Yahoo which has been the source of all sorts of spam of late. I too remember the older NNX rules. No caller spam in those days.
OBVIOUSLY a SPOOFED number. There are NO "123" exchanges in MA and most likely NOWHERE as this violates the rules/principles behind the phone number system ("1"s are used IN THE MIDDLE of Area Codes and exchanges, ONLY.)
I let it go to the ans. machine, JUST in case it was a legit call, BUT I SHOULD have picked up/hung up w/o answering to break the call and 'confuse' the robodialer. No message left. Obviously just trolling to find out what numbers were 'live' and which are not in service at this time.
>>> ("1"s are used IN THE MIDDLE of Area Codes and exchanges, ONLY.) <<<
You must be even older than I am, and that's saying something!
Although it is still the case that no area code or exchange can BEGIN with a "1" or a "0" (and hence, the number you are reporting is, indeed, spoofed), the even stricter rule you recite was abandoned a long time ago, to the extent you properly recited it at all.
"1" and "0" were never allowed in the middle of exchanges until certain area codes switched to all-digit dialing. That's because the local exchanges all had names, and the first two letters of the local exchange were used as the first two digits of the local phone number being dialed. And there are no letters on the telephone dial for "1" and "0." Rather than add new area codes at the time, TPC ("the phone company") simply decided to expand the universe of 7 digit numbers available for assignment.
They also considered going from 7 digit dialing to 8 digit local dialing, but that would require all the switches in every part of the country to be modified or replaced -- by then, a very expensive proposition for a network that still largely comprised mechanical stepper switches. I remember the editorial cartoon the local newspaper ran when that was announced -- "Sorry, Long Number."
But you still can't have an exchange that begins with a "1" or a "0" because too many switches would take that as a signal that at least 7 or 10 *more* digits were to follow.
Don the unRachel said I had great credit and could lower my current card rates blah blah. This is the second such call after I mistakenly clicked on a Yahoo "credit card comparison for people with good credit" link (wanted news story to the left). So I no longer use Yahoo which has been the source of all sorts of spam of late. I too remember the older NNX rules. No caller spam in those days.