'How Did I Get The NIN Without Registration?'

Hello Nairalander, I would like to know the circumstances that could make it possible for a person who is yet to visit any of the NIMC offices or outlets either online or offline for the purpose of registering for the NIN get the NIN?

I have never made any prior efforts to register for the NIN stuff, however out of curiosity I tried entering the NIMC's NIN registration verification code *346# via my Etisalat phone number and to my surprise the system returned a positive answer with an eleven digit NIN.

So what are the possible technical reasons for this?

Thanks for your suggested answers.

Update##
I tried to see if I could verify the number on the NIMC website and di scovered that the site is down with message reading indicating "FORBIDDEN "black black bla

source http://www.nairaland.com/6323390/how-did-get-nin-without