A bad date, we’ve all been there and have had our share of deal breakers. At the end of our wasted time, being polite is not at the top of the list. But do you really enjoy to be upfront and all the hassle that comes with it?
So what to do when they ask you for your phone number? It’s easy. Bite your tongue, smile, don’t argue, just give them a number, and hope they will never bother you again because you gave them a wrong number.
Here are some prank phone numbers to get you out of the dilemma, without having to reject, embarrass and/or disappoint your bad date at the spot. For ease of use they are sorted by location.
North America
Rejection Hotline
The Rejection Hotline was created by Humor Hotlines.
The page provides a long list of prank phone numbers for over 100 cities in many different states in the US and one number for Victoria, Canada. Although this post found a few more numbers for Canada on Rejection Hotline, they must have meanwhile been removed.
Here is a small selection:
858-492-8002 San Diego, CA, USA
904-879-8012 Jacksonville, FL, USA
617-861-3962 Boston, MA, USA
347-689-1270 New York City, NY, USA
713-866-6249 Houston, TX, USA
250-984-0686 Victoria, BC, Canada
Please see the complete list for more numbers. In case your state isn’t listed, the Rejection Hotline recommends to use an excuse like “It’s where I went to school” or “I haven’t changed my cell phone number since I moved.” That should work perfectly fine.
Outsourcing
Humor Hotlines has a few more funny prank phone numbers that you might want to consider. How about outsourcing your friendship to India?
Here are the numbers:
267-436-5128 Philadelphia, PA, USA
267-436-5123 Philadelphia, PA, USA
401-285-0701 Rhode Island, USA
413-497-0071 Western MA, USA
The Rejection Line
Are you in New York? Then you may use this official New York Rejection Line.
212-479-7990 New York City, NY, USA
Australia
The Rejection Line
That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Well, this rejection line is for the folks down under.
In Australia there’s less hassle with area codes in the case of cell phone numbers. They simply don’t give away where you’re from, they only reveal which provider you’re signed up with. So that’s why one number fits all:
0419-317446 Australia (cell phone)
The people who set up this page had a very neat idea. All text messages sent to that number are displayed on the website. It’s hilarious! Even better, you can query the site for numbers that have texted this line.
Germany
Frank geht ran
Similar to Australia, German cell phone numbers are provider-specific and independent of location. Next time you feel forced to share your phone number, use this neutral number and Frank will answer the phone for you (Frank geht ran):
0163-1737743 Germany (cell phone)
Frank will politely tell the person calling that you do not wish to be contacted by them. It’s neutral and can also be used in all sorts of situations, for example in forms. You can preview Frank’s message here. It’s German of course.
Telefonpaul
An alternative to Frank geht ran is TelefonPaul. The concept is the same, a polite and neutral message for anyone who asked your number and didn’t deserve to get the real one. Paul provides both a landline number for Stuttgart, Germany and a German cell phone number.
0711-50885524 Stuttgart, Germany
01577-1599624 Germany (cell phone)
You can preview Paul’s message on his website.
United Kingdom
The Rejection Line
Here we have another clone of the original NY Rejection Line. This is the one for the UK and the number is:
09061-100596 UK (service number)
How to Give a Fake Phone Number
This page at eHow has advice on how to give out a fake phone number in a bar/club situation. A good read for all the girls and possibly some of the boys out there.
I tried my best to cover as many countries as possible. But due to the nature of language barriers, this list is far from comprehensive. Do you happen to know of similar services in your country? Please go ahead and add the respective resources in the comments. We will all love you for it! :)
Last but not least a disclaimer! Being in Germany myself, I could not test all of these prank phone numbers. Thus I do not give any guarantees as to their functionality. Furthermore, it’s your responsibility to find out about calling fees. They might be reasonable, they might not. Please query the respective websites. Finally, call or give out these numbers at your own risk!
Image Credit : lusi
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Hide 9 Comments
This is one of the worse ways of treating others. Someone must not have much respect and especially by writing this article. I hope you get treated badly next time you ask someone out again. Why can’t people just say I would rather not give my number out geez.
Because there are some people who don’t get what “No, I WON’T give you my number” means… Yes, even after the 15th time you say that.
Great stuff, though I do miss one for The Netherlands. It would be great to have a number like that to give to those companies that absolutely insist on getting my number, even though I won’t pick up the phone. It would be a good way to communicate how I feel to them.
@Docquesting
It’s nice for you that you either have never had to deal with very pushy people or that you are very assertive, but that doesn’t go for all of us. Of course one should always do their absolute best to tell someone how they feel in person. But some people are very pushy and won’t take no for an answer. So why let them ruin your night out?
Great resources, if only you posted this a few weeks earlier I could of used some of these!
As the UK number is a premium rate number your date is quite likely to know what you’re doing.
Unless they think you work in the phone sex industry and have given them your work number by mistake.
Which, as you like humiliating people like this, is probably pretty likely.
Obviously you’ve never had a psycho bad date calling you back at all hours, who can’t take a hint.
We’re not suggesting you do this to everyone, but instead to total idiots you find yourself going out with that you want to extricate yourself from.
LOL i love this.
@ppl: please, have a sense of humour! Nobody is asking you to use these numbers anyway.
i would rather recommend just having a temp number…
“Create Free Temporary Phone Numbers Easily with INumbr”
this way it’s not offensive, you can record your own greeting in advance…(and hold the number for upto a month) and if you need to you can check the voicemail through your email (without having it forward to your cell if you don’t want it to), if they leave a message and you feel like checking it then you can decide from there, it will show you their phone number as well.
plus you can always play it off easily if you bump into them in the future… oh here’s my new number…
Mike,
very good suggestion for people in the US.
Here is the link and the respective MUO post from Karl for anyone who would like to try it.
http://inumbr.com
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-free-temporary-phone-numbers-easily-with-inumbr/
Unfortunately, numbers will only last for up to a week.