LEWISTON – Some holders of electronic benefits transfer cards find that dialing the phone number on the back of the cards gets them a sex line, not their balances.

A Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesman tells the Sun Journal that officials have been aware for months that the phone number on some cards is off by one digit.

Lj Langelier, of Lewiston, discovered the error this week 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 misdialed, but kept getting the same message when he called back.

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

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