The reassignment of phone numbers can often have unforeseen but amusing consequences. Take, for example, the toll-free number established by the Corrugated Packaging Council (and printed on innumerable corrugated containers) to provide information to companies seeking to recycle their cardboard. Callers expecting environmentally-friendly advice may have found the voice at the other end of the line a little too friendly, as the phased-out 1-800 number had subsequently been bought up by a phone-sex line.

Everything worked out for the best in the end. The Council tapped a new revenue stream, while callers found themselves oddly aroused by steamy details of corrugated cardboard's rigidity and ability to bend into any shape imaginable.

SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report