Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Staff and agencies in Lewiston

Welfare cards carry number for sex line instead of help line

Calls to a help line number for welfare recipients in Maine went through to ‘America’s hottest talk line’.
Calls to a help line number for welfare recipients in Maine went through to ‘America’s hottest talk line’. Photograph: Brian Jackson / Alamy/Alamy

Some holders of electronic benefits transfer cards in the US state of Maine have found that dialling the phone number on the back of the cards gets them a sex line instead of their balance.

A Maine government spokesman told the Sun Journal that officials were aware that the phone number on some welfare cards was off by one digit.

Lj Langelier, of Lewiston, discovered the error when he went to check his EBT balance before going to the grocery store. What he got instead was a message welcoming him to “America’s hottest talk line”.

Langelier says he thought he’d misdialled but kept getting the same message when he called back.

The department said it planned to replace the misprinted cards and strengthen its review process to prevent future errors.

With Associated Press

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.