THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603230300
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Don Cericola, the real estate agent whose toll-free number was inadvertently switched to a steamy phone-sex line, has been given a new 800 number, and he hopes the embarrassing incident is behind him.
Cericola discovered the switch earlier this month when he called his number to double-check the greeting. Instead, he heard this message: ``Ummm. Like it hot and nasty? . . . Oh, yeah.''
Eastern Telecom International of Newport News, the carrier that assigned the number to Cericola about seven months ago, discovered that long-distance carrier T.W. Communication of Costa Mesa, Calif., had co-opted Cericola's number and given it to the sex line, a statement from Cericola's attorney said.
``I wouldn't take the number back when they were holding it for hostage,'' Cericola said. ``I figured the number was tainted and there was no way I could reconcile it.''
Cericola had spent thousands of dollars promoting his property management and relocation business, and he now wonders what damage the phone-sex line might have done to his business. But he says that he doesn't fault Eastern Telecom for the switch and that he appreciates the phone company's effort to ``put a big space between me and the number.''
Since the mix-up, he's gotten letters and calls from across the country and could have appeared as a guest on news programs wanting to get a good laugh out of his misfortune. But he said he wasn't interested.
He did, however, check out the new number (1-800-411-6710) . . . just to be sure.
``Somebody made a comment that I should see if it spells out anything lewd,'' he said. ``I checked it. It sure doesn't.'' by CNB