On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 15:14:22 -0500, Richard J Kinch
wrote:

| Tom Miller writes:
|
| As only one example, I once called 28 asphalt driveway
| contractors in order to get 4 of them to deign to give me an estimate
| to replace my drive .
|
| Perhaps there are only 4 contractors, using 28 different phone numbers?
| Common scam, using multiple ads in the phone book. Of course the phone
| company is happy to further it.


I understand what you are saying, but in this case, nah. I live in a
major metropolitan area (next to New York City) and there is no
shortage of contractors. These names were not all from the phone book,
either, but from friends' rolledexes too.