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Comment by gaelenh | Hacker News Reader

I read a story a couple years ago about a couple who had there home raided over 50 times over a 4-5 year period by NYPD. Turns out there address was used as test data in the system, and it was leaking into the police's forms/database. So, if using fake data, make sure it can't be mistaken with an actual address/phone number/dna sequence.

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There are already defined sets of telephone numbers that can be used for fake data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_telephone_number

Also of course example.com. Not sure if there are non routeable physical addresses.

> Not sure if there are non routeable physical addresses.

Santa Claus, North Pole, Snow Street 1

Sherlock Holmes, London, 221B Baker Street (is a small museum afaik)

It's actually the address of the Sherlock Holmes Museum, so not wholly inaccurate.

I'm a fan of "Bilbo Baggins, 1 Bagshot Row, Bag End", personally.

Oh, not small then? :)

very small, but worth a visit.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is not located at 221b Baker Street.

That address does not exist, but any mail addressed to it is redirected to the Museum, which is technically 239 Baker Street (since it sits between 237 and 241).

They do have a special dispensation from the City of Westminster to display their address as 221b Baker Street though.

The TV show Breaking Bad uses phone numbers like 1 (575) 147-8092. Since the local part of a phone number can never start with a 0 or a 1, it avoids the "555 problem" of obviously fake phone numbers catching the viewer's attention, while still being non-dialable.

I'm shocked this isn't done more often. Even better though is when the show owns the phone number and can use it to communicate with fans in-the-know.

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