Does anyone know how/why this "every SIM card has a name" thing works?

Question

I've seen pictures like this on Facebook:

The instructions claim that your SIM card has a unique name that can be displayed by inputting a command of the form

@[x:0]

where x is the last 3 digits of your phone number.

I don't believe for a second this has anything to do with your phone number/SIM card, but it does "work". When I posted the command into a text box on Facebook it was replaced with a name.

I don't recognise the syntax with the @, but the square brackets makes me think it's some kind of array.

When I enter @[123:0] as a status update, the name Morgan Grice is the output. I wonder if the output name varies based on the user entering the command, or whether @[123:0] always outputs Morgan Grice (difficult for me to find out on my own).

Does anyone know how this is happening and explain how, for example, @[123:0] becomes Morgan Grice?

Answer 1

What you discovered is just a way of referencing to Facebook User by his id (123 is Morgan Grice).

You can just use any Facebook User id (and probably Facebook Page too, or even any OpenGraph object id) that way.

Answer 2

If you follow the process correctly you do actually see a name appearing. But the truth is that there is no relation between with your mobile number and Facebook.

The name is appearing is due to Facebook’s shorthand code. All Facebook users and pages are assigned with a unique ID number. When that ID number is typed into a comment box or status along with the symbols described in the message above, it displays the name of that corresponding Facebook user or page. For example, typing in @[666:0] reveals the name of Facebook user with the ID number 666. The ID number can be of more than 3 number, you can even use 4 numbers for above trick.