"Larry Blanchard" wrote in message
...
We have our number blocked on our land line phone. Imagine my surprise
when I called a merchants 800 number this morning and as soon as the call
was answered a computer voice informed me of the status of my order.

So I did some investigating. Seems there's a technique called automatic
number identification that's available to any owner of an 800 etc.
number. It ignores number blocking.

Sort of destroys the whole purpose, doesn't it?

At least the phone company isn't charging me for the blocking I thought I
had :-).

--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw

ANI is a separate system from caller ID and uses different technology.
It was developed long before caller ID and is used by the phone
companies for routing and billing. No caller can block ANI when
making a call but any commercial customer, not just those with an 8xx
numbers, can pay a premium to the phone company so they can receive
the ANI information on every call. 911 emergency call centers all use
ANI to identify who is calling them.
Art