
In 2013, an Arkansas man, who allegedly hatched an elaborate plan to murder a former employee, was arrested after he reportedly pocket dialed the victim and revealed the plot. Due to the dialing of common numbers, the recipient is likely to know the caller, and may overhear conversations that the caller would not want them to hear. The caller is frequently unaware that the call has taken place, whereas the recipient of the call often hears background conversation and background noises such as the rustling of clothes. Instead, pocket dialing frequently triggers the "recently dialed" and "contact" lists that are contained within modern cell phones. Given the haphazard nature of inadvertent dialing, most actual misconnections do not result from the selection of random numbers. Īccidental calls are often cited as being one of the more annoying consequences of cell phone usage. If this is a landline, the recipient may have difficulty in disconnecting the call in order to use the phone, as networks sometimes define a timeout period between the recipient hanging up and the call actually being cleared. Accidental calls, if not hung up immediately, tie up the recipient's phone line. In addition to the inconvenience and embarrassment that may result from an erroneously dialed number, the phenomenon can have other consequences including using up a phone user's airtime minutes. Sometimes the unlock sequence requires nothing more than pressing a button and then applying a random swiping motion to the screen, or in the case of some keypad phones, it sometimes requires nothing more than holding a particular key for several seconds.

The keypad lock feature found on most mobile phones is intended to help prevent accidental dialing, but is often so trivial that the keypad is easily pocket-unlocked. Typically, a call is caused by the person's movement changing the shape of the pocket in a person's clothing in such a way that a small amount of pressure is applied to some of the buttons, or in the case of a touch screen phone, a call can also be caused by the screen of the phone facing the person's body and a small amount of perspiration creating sufficient conduction through their clothing such that the capacitive touch screen detects their clothing as if it were a touch from the user's finger. Pocket dialing primarily occurs with touch phones and open phones. Modern cellphones come in three configurations: "flip" phones, where the phone is physically closed rendering the keys inaccessible, touch phones where a finger or stylus is required to use the controls, and open phones, where keys or buttons are always exposed. 2.1 Accidental calling of emergency services.
