Days after U.S. college student Shira Barlow got her new cell phone number, the party inquiries, birthday wishes and late-night calls started arriving.
Barlow had unwittingly inherited the old phone number of celebrity hotel heiress Paris Hilton-and messages from well-wishers and foes alike are still flooding in five months later.
Barlow told the Los Angeles Times in a story published on Friday that the calls and text messages-usually coming between about 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on weekends-at first were mostly from people asking about cool Los Angeles nightclubs.
But in May they were replaced by condolences after the 26-year-old socialite was sentenced to jail for violating probation in a drunken-driving case.
"People were scared for her," the UCLA student told the newspaper.
Barlow said she has resisted the temptation to pose as Hilton to get herself and her friends on the guest lists of exclusive parties.
She also said she has no plans to switch the number because it has been more a source of amusement than a hassle.
She inherited it in February under a practice in which U.S. phone companies recycle old cell phone numbers after six months to meet increasing demand, the Times said.
The newspaper stumbled on the story after a reporter called the number, hoping to reach Hilton, and Barlow answered.
Hilton spent three weeks in a county jail near Los Angeles last month. Her incarceration ignited a worldwide media frenzy and debate about celebrity justice.