This is a legit number from L.A. County Men's Jail....I 1st got this back in April & I had no idea who it was at 1st...until I heard my son's voice & he has been calling me since on most days to say hi, his 'I love yous' and just to letmeknow that he is ok. When he talks, I hear his message intended for him to announce his name to identify himself, but instead they use it to relay messages & they call it phone texting. This way when my son calls me, I can hear his messages, albeit as short as they are, he then calls back a few times over to continue leaving msgs & often throughout the day. He calls at again at night to say goodnight & although he can't hear me, he has an account set up in the event I am able to put money on it to accept his calls which is a minimum of $25. I got this info when I called the 1st time to inquire from a live jail officer. I know for a fact this is true, it was a jail, NOT prison. Not sure what, it any other jail or prison systems use this service, but it was the jail chaplain who called me initially to inform me my son would be calling & why he was in. I got to be friendly with the chaplain who see my son every week & relays msgs to him which is cool. Turns out that my son is not exactly in trouble, but was on 2 years probation for some small stuff (a riff with my nutty uncle), did a small no-no like drink a beer & when in court for a probation violation after a couple times, was given the chance/choice to finish out his entire 2 year probation sentence in county jail in 6 months and come out with a clean record so he can go back to school, was realizing he was getting into stupid trouble & that it would eventually ruin his life, so he decided to go the time in one of, if not the toughest county jail in the country...men's Central Jail in Los Angeles, Ca & being as he was always a good kid, roll model student & just got in a bit of trouble followed by probation violations (the latter being the stupid part, my uncle who wronged him bailed him out & ended up in trouble, (that often leads to unnecessary & excessive time behind bars being as ya don't have to do much to violate parole or probation, he decided to wipe his slate clean, almost chose prison which would have been double the time,but not as hard since prison most often has more favorable conditions than jail in way of standards in general due to longer stays...more & better food, more permanent housing than jail which only keeps prisoners up to a year, he decided for the best & I just now got a call, no talking, and my caller ID isn't working, so it probably just didn't go through. I blocked the call to find out the number then removed it when I recognized it. If I push a certain code he told me, he gets the confirmation of me accepting the call whether I don't or not (I just hang up before the operator answers), but he knows I got & heard his msg & calls back a few times hence the coined term, 'phone texting'. I think that is brilliant & he told me he knows I can't afford $25 for the Global Tel Link call(s) and just wants to know I got his msg(s). Not sure how many minutes or calls we'd get if I did except, but he assured me he'd rather me not due to knowing it would be outrageously expensive & so I'm happy to get sweet msgs from him while he's glad to get the acknowledgement that I heard him & it keeps us connected...until he is out in just over 2 weeks:-) SWorry about the lost, drawn out post, but I just thought I'd explain b/c I am going through this currently most every day & ya never know who'll be in jail...I certainly did not expect my son to be & I was shocked until I learned the incident. I would expect my older son to be in jail if either, not my younger, so I suggest you find out the heads up if you ever get these calls. Ya just never know & you can't get scammed unless you allow them to set up an account, and then you would know, they wouldn't blindside you.