Happened to me too in my teens! New England telephone (later Nynex, later Verizon) had the most arcane pricing scheme in Massachusetts. Calling a BBS in the town next to mine in the same area code was a long distance call, etc. Anyways, I can still remember the panic/shock I felt as a 12 year old getting a $500 phone bill. I laugh it now because I was running an autodialer to hack long distance calling cards at the time. Karma :)

Interesting! I helped start an ISP in Central Mass in the mid-90s and at least part of the reason we picked the town we did for our POP was because it reached a ton of towns as a local call. For whatever reason, calling the next town over in a different area code was even considered a local call. Great memories from this era!