[1] Goldblatt says that after observing an awkward situation where a man approached a pretty woman and failed to get her phone number, he came up with the idea of a fake phone number as a subtle way of rejecting the date.
While the hotline was set up as a joke, in 2002, a business, RH Brands, LLC, was started based on the website humorhotlines.com.
[2] Since then, a number of "rejection hotlines: were set up the United States, Ireland, Australia and Canada.
In some major cities the number receives over 50,000 calls a day without any paid promotion whatsoever.
[3] While the hotlines were supposed to be a joke, their popularity shows they do fulfill a social function.