Rejection Hotline Number: The Owner's Line and the Old Ones

The rejection hotline number

The brand's owner, The WHATEVER Network, lists 605-477-3018 as the free line on its shop page, and names it in a post titled "new 2024 numbers". According to the post, callers hear a recording that opens "Hello, this is NOT the person you were trying to call!", and the owner asks users to report the number if it goes down.

605 is a South Dakota area code, so this is an ordinary US number. A call to it should cost whatever your plan charges for calls in the US, but we have not confirmed that for this line.

Does the rejection hotline still exist?

The rejection hotline brand is still being offered. The owner's shop page, titled as a 2026 relaunch of The WHATEVER Network, lists numbers, one of them free. Whether a particular number connects today is something we cannot say, because we place no test calls. A TikTok video from June 2024 (the date is taken from the video's ID) says "this number still works", but it does not say which number and it is more than two years old, so we do not rely on it. A notice on the shop's temporary pages also says no one is managing them right now, so we cannot tell how closely the numbers are kept up.

The original rejection hotline number

The number most lists call the original is 605-475-6968. Bustle (updated January 2022) and Fairygodboss (February 2022) still print it with no status. Today it is not the number the owner gives. An older note from the owner called it free, and the current listing names 605-477-3018. We found nothing showing it is disconnected.

Do not hand out numbers from old lists. The owner says it sold off more than 2,500 numbers and shut down about 2013 or 2014, so a number copied from an old post may now reach a stranger. Rejection hotline numbers in area codes such as 212, 215, 413, 508 and 617 circulate on Reddit and Facebook; we do not print them. The owner's shop listed numbers in the 212, 310, 404 and 617 area codes, and a custom area code, on 10 October 2026 for about $4.69 to $5.69 each, delivered as an image download.

How to give out a rejection hotline number

• Know the limits first. We have no recent caller report for any rejection hotline number here, so one may not connect. A number you give out is a bluff, not a safe line.
• Memorise one number before you need it. Fumbling with your phone breaks the moment.
• Say it the way you say your own, steadily and without smiling, and leave before they can dial it in front of you.
• Use a plain "no" when it feels safe. A fake number is for the moment a direct no feels unsafe. It buys an exit; it does not make you safe.
• Leave if someone turns aggressive. Get help from staff or someone nearby. No phone number fixes that.
• Never make up a number or hand over a stranger's. A random number can reach a real person. For a story or a form example, the range 555-0100 to 555-0199 is reserved for fiction; our 555 phone numbers guide covers why.
• If a real person ever answers a line you gave out, the number has changed hands. Apologise and stop using it.

Other rejection and brush-off lines

The Mary Sue Rejection Hotline: 646-926-6614

The pop-culture site The Mary Sue announced this line on 23 October 2017. Its recording told callers they had "made a woman feel unsafe and/or disrespected". The article says the text option replied one hour later. We found no report of the line from 2025 or 2026. Status: checked Oct 2026.

The Loser Line (MOViN 92.5)

Seattle's MOViN 92.5, on its Brooke and Jeffrey show, tells listeners to give creeps the Loser Line number and says it will play the creep's voicemail on the air. In posts dated January, March and May 2026 the station gives the number only by text: its posts say to text LOSER to 78592, and add that message and data rates may apply. We have not tried it and cannot say what it costs or what you sign up to. Older lists print a 206 number for it, but we cannot confirm that number now, so we do not recommend it. Status: checked Oct 2026.

The Feminist Phone Intervention: 669-221-6251

When it launched in June 2014, calling or texting this line triggered an automated quotation from the writer bell hooks, according to Tech Times. We found no recent report of it working, so it lives here as history. Status: checked Oct 2026.

For a prank on a friend, not a stranger, see our funny phone number list for Callin' Oates, the Rickroll line and more.

Do people really give out fake numbers?

Quora readers ask whether women really give fake numbers to men in bars, or whether it only happens in films. We found no survey of how often people do it. What the data shows is how common unwanted contact is. In Pew Research Center's 2023 survey, 48% of people who had used a dating site or app reported at least one of four unwanted behaviours, and 56% of women under 50 who had used them said they were sent unwanted sexually explicit messages or images, 30 points more than the share of men of any age. That survey is about dating apps, not bars, but it shows why people want a quiet way to end contact. A rejection hotline is a small, funny tool for that.

Where the rejection hotline came from

The idea dates from 2001, when Jeff Goldblatt, in his words to The Torch in 2010, saw a man fail to get a woman's number at a bar. In 2002 the humorhotlines.com site turned it into a business, RH Brands, LLC. The owner says the lines took 475 million calls over more than ten years, then that it was forced to sell off more than 2,500 numbers and shut down, in 2013 according to one post and 2014 according to its shop page. The owner says the assets came back in a relaunch.

Numbers from older lists that people report are dead

Some older lists of fake numbers still circulate. These two are reported dead, and dead numbers can be reassigned to real people. We have not tested either. Do not hand out any of them.

• 866-740-4531, the "I am Groot" text line. A developer built it in 2014 (TechCrunch); one user said in 2018 that it did not work. Status: Deadchecked Oct 2026.
• 309-889-0497, the Evangelion theme line. Fans said in 2023 and 2024 that it was disconnected. Status: Deadchecked Oct 2026.

The John Cena theme number that older lists also print now appears to belong to a private person, so we leave its digits out. If a person answers any old novelty number, apologise and hang up.

Safety and common sense

A rejection hotline number buys you an exit; it does not make you safe. Use it to end the conversation and leave, not to stand your ground. If you feel unsafe at any point, leave and get help rather than negotiating.