phone numbers

I have a friend that i have not chatted with in a while. This afternoon I thought I would reach out and say hello.


Someone else is using the number. How does that happen. Or how does one person give another a number they claim not to know.


FYI the number in question was a hobby number a one time

Could be a Text App like Google Voice that went dormant, and they gave the number to someone else. If you don't use it, you lose it. or they just changed a number and gave that one to someone else.

Cheers

How long would it need to be dormant

I think Google will remove a number from your account if you don't use it for 90 days, and after that it's not long before someone else can claim it.

What about an AT&T number. This one has my spidey senses peaked. The number in question is in a good number of our phones and was active last year. The new owner is interested in the hobby.

https://www.eccie.net/member.php?u=6...ab=photos_mine

I had a 918 hobby number through the text free app for 4 years. It went dormant while I was living in California and using a number with a local area code. There was no way to recover the number. They just assigned the number to someone else. I always thought whoever got the number must be very entertained. lol