Old Toll-Free Manatee Number Leads To Sex Chat Line
Old Toll-Free Manatee Number Leads To Sex Chat Line
POSTED: 6:23 a.m. EST December 1, 2003
UPDATED: 7:55 a.m. EST December 1, 2003
Concerned citizens calling a publicized toll-free number to report injured and dead manatees or boating violations have instead been given offers to chat with "fantasy girls" in exchange for a credit card number.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission number changed years ago, but the old 800 number is still posted on Web sites, boater education signs, and park brochures around the state, leading to confusion for callers.
Starting last month, callers trying to report an injured manatee using the 800 number were referred to another 800 number, which turned out to be a sex-talk line called Intimate Encounters.
Being hooked up to a sex line "only adds to the levels of frustration felt by our field staff and FWC dispatchers, it's making us look really bad to the public," Elsa Haubold, in charge of the marine institute's manatee program, wrote in an e-mail to agency officials.
The agency kept the 800 number for four years after the demise of the Florida Marine Patrol, noted Maj. Kent Thompson of the wildlife agency's law enforcement division. Until July, callers to the line got a recording referring them to the new number. Then, the company that owns the 800 listings apparently sold it to Intimate Encounters, he said.
Now, Thompson said they're going to try to get the old number back again.
In the meantime, Save the Manatee Club members are replacing its old signs with new ones showing the new number, 888-404-FWCC.
This is not the first time Intimate Encounters has turned a hot line into a party line. It has taken over old toll-free numbers from the conservative journal Policy Review, the World Wildlife Fund, Alltel's wireless customer service and rape crisis lines in Maine and Arizona. Directory Assistance did not have a phone number for the company.
Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Old Toll-Free Manatee Number Leads To Sex Chat Line 
