The problem with physical burner phones is inconvenience and expense. But nobody wants to have to carry around two phones. And we don’t know anybody who wants to buy and then throw out a smartphone every few days. Imagine the cost!
Now you can also get “Dual SIM” phones in some areas, but those can be prohibitively expensive. Even then, you have two numbers, but both are connected to you and are not disposable numbers. So they’re neither hiding your real number nor protecting you.
And let’s not forget payphones! Payphones were the original way of hiding your number and making anonymous calls. They could still be useful if you can find a payphone in 2019. But only for calling, of course, since you can’t text with a payphone… Maybe payphones aren’t such a good option after all.
There’s a better way to disguise your phone number these days, thankfully.
Read on to learn why you may want to hide your number, and how you can do so simply and effectively!
Why should I hide my phone number?
Number masking isn’t a new idea. We’ve talked about it previously, and we’ll talk about it again here on the blog because it’s our area of expertise: helping you keep your personal information secure.
You may not even think of your phone number as personal information. After all, you’re asked to give it out all the time, right?
Every website you visit, social media you sign up with, brick-and-mortar store you walk into–they all desperately want a way to contact you, and they’re not satisfied with just email. Nobody checks their email. Everybody has a “junk mail” email address they use for precisely these situations.
Legitimate marketers and scammers alike have gotten wise, and they want your phone number.
Even if you’re in the habit of handing out your number easily, here are some reasons you may want to start hiding your number:
- Online dating: Even if you feel you know a person from online communications, moving the conversation to real life can be terrifying.
- Online shopping: There are some retailers you may be comfortable giving your personal details, but if it’s just a one-off purchase, consider hiding your number and preventing future follow-up.
- Work, or a side-hustle: whether your job requires you to make cold-calls, or you’re trying to sell or buy an item on Facebook Marketplace, you may not want to disclose your actual phone number.
Privacy is also a concern when dealing with volunteer associations, parents’ groups, commercial websites, neighbors, and work associates. Any time your phone number is shared publicly, you’re putting your privacy in danger. You’re risking spam at best, and identity theft at worst.
But don’t worry, because when you want to mask your number, whatever the reason, you have options.
Hiding your number with a block code
You can use a blocking code to prevent access to your number. This will cause calls made from your number to come up as “Blocked Caller” or “Unknown number” or some variation thereof.
The most well-known vertical service code in North America is *67. If you want to hide your number and make a private call, just dial *67 before entering the destination number you want to contact.
In the United Kingdom, the most common blocking code is 141. It’s #31# throughout much of Europe and South America.
Any number you call while using *67 or the local version will not be able to redial your number. But keep in mind that this only works for phone calls, not text messages.
Another important thing to note is that these blocking codes do not prevent your number’s information from being transmitted to the destination number. Instead, they cause your number’s information to be masked; if the person you are calling has unmasking technology installed on their smartphone, then *67 or the local equivalent may not work as intended.
Hide your number by changing the “Caller ID” setting in your smartphone
If you want to set your caller ID to appear as “Private Number,” you can actually accomplish this directly from your device.
Hide your number on an iPhone
- Go to the phone’s settings menu
- Select “Phone”
- Choose “Show My Caller ID”
- Toggle between the options to either to show/hide your number
Hide your number on an Android phone
- Open up the phone’s settings menu
- Select “Call settings”
- Choose “Additional settings”
- Select “Caller ID”
- Choose “Hide number” to hide your number, or “Show number” to go back to showing your number when you call
Not all carriers allow these features, so they’re not guaranteed, and we wouldn’t rely on them if it’s a serious matter. If you absolutely must hide your number and you can’t
Hide your number by using a temporary number app
There’s a reason why burner numbers are timeless. If you really need to hide your number, don’t play games; keep your real number completely private and get a disposable number.
There are a number of secondary number apps on the market. But in case you’re new here (maybe you arrived from a Google search asking “how can I hide my phone number”) please allow us to explain.
These secondary phone number apps provide a focus on privacy and security. You can get a second telephone number from as little as $1.99, and use it for as long as you like. This is a good choice for long-term numbers, in case you need a second number but don’t want to lug around a second phone.
A temporary number ensures that incoming calls won’t go to your real number. Instead, they’ll ring on your temporary number instead, which allows you to have anonymous two-way communication.
With so many apps for this purpose we would encourage you to check out all the options available and decide which one is most dedicated to ensuring your privacy.
Hide your number by using a virtual phone number
A virtual phone number, also known as DID or access number, is a telephone number that is not directly associated to a telephone line. These numbers are often programmed to forward incoming calls to one of the pre-set telephone numbers chosen by the client; either Landline, Mobile or VoIP.
Virtual phone numbers can be registered with an international, local or toll free area code and can be customised to provide the perfect vanity number. ConXhub boasts one of the industry’s largest inventories of virtual phone numbers with hundreds of thousands of options to choose from across 9000+ cities from 62+ countries around the globe.
Phone Number Types
Local Phone Numbers
Local phone numbers represent a specific region, city or county/state which is identified by their 3 digit area code. Local phone numbers are a great way to establish a local presence within a community whether you have a physical presence there or not.
With ConXhub, you may register as many local phone numbers as needed, in as many different localities as required. It doesn’t matter if you are in a big city like Chicago (312) or a small town such as Key West (786), we have local phone numbers available for everyone.
I don’t just need to hide my phone number: What else can ConXhub provide me with?
ConXhub is not just a way to ‘hide my phone number’, we offer much much more!
Access all the features you need from your communications, but most importantly right where you need them – on your mobile phone.
- 1 Phone, 1 SIM – Many Numbers – Ditch the extra mobile. Unlimited numbers, on one mobile. No need for additional phones when you have ConXhub – imagine ALL your phone numbers on just one phone. Keep your business & personal life separate by using multiple numbers.
- Be Local – Appear as a local when calling, even if you are in another country. Having multiple national or international numbers enables you to be local wherever you want! Appear to be anywhere in the world, for any reason and leverage the savings of virtual offices and staff!
- Raise the bar, compete with multi nationals
- Highest quality calls worldwide
- Choose phone numbers from over 60 countries
- Privacy – Making business calls on your mobile but keeping your personal number private. That’s right, stay private even with One Phone, For Everything. Enjoy the perfect BYOD solution with ConXhub – use your phone for work purposes without having to worry about privacy.
- Keep your personal number private
- Use one phone, ditch the other mobile
- Total privacy between work & personal
- Work life balance – Separate your life in mins with new numbers. Enjoy more calm. All your Comms on One Mobile for Work/Life Balance. Ditching the desk phone & using your mobile to communicate gives you more freedom & greater work life balance. Separate your life in minutes with multiple numbers all on one phone!
- Enjoy more calm & less hassle
- Increase efficiency & get more done
- Communicate from wherever, whenever
- Disaster Recovery – Floods, electricity outages, Virus Lockdown – you’re covered Fire, Flood, Power Outages & even Covid-19 Lockdown ConXhub is by your side! When disaster strikes, the last thing you need is for your telecoms to fail – staying in touch with clients is critical.
- ConXhub will continue to work during any disaster
- Easily divert calls to work colleagues
- Add or remove users & numbers as you need
- Increase productivity – Unlimited profiles, multiple numbers, switchboard all on your mobile. Improved Efficiency, Increased Productivity. Finding the time to do everything is a struggle for us all. By removing the reliance on the office desk phone you can increase efficiency. Make & receive work calls, no matter where you are, on your personal mobile…it really is that simple!
- Increase productivity by using one phone
- Use multiple profiles & numbers
- Full switchboard features on your mobile
- Communications for Life – Keep numbers for life no matter where you move globally. No matter where you move, all our phone numbers can stay with you for as long as you need them…even if that means FOREVER! Forget about moving location & having to give up & change your phone number!
- Enjoy multiple numbers on one mobile
- Keep your numbers forever
- Use anywhere globally for life
- Burner numbers – Create temporary numbers for any use. Then ditch them. Utilise temporary numbers for anything. Need a disposable number for a temporary period of time? Take for example house hunting… you give one number out to all estate agents & then ditch it & remove it from service when no longer required.
- Temporary, disposable numbers
- Choose from over 9,000+ cities
- Multiple numbers on one phone
- Music on Hold, IVR, Call recording – Get all the Big BIZ phone functions plus ConXhub features for free. Total Control & Freedom on Your Mobile Phone. Appear much bigger than you actually are. Run several businesses at any given time. Allow staff to use their personal mobile while appearing as though they are calling from an office desk. Even record all calls.
- Ditch the extra mobile & desk phone
- Mobile office on your mobile
- Total telecoms freedom
- Calls all Inclusive – Call anywhere, anytime without bill shock. Know your exact spend with all inclusive call plans. Our all inclusive plans are just that…including all calls you make & receive (even international), call routing, welcome greetings, virtual reception, busy announcement & voicemail to email, plus ConXhub app.
- Call anywhere, anytime for as long as you need
- Receive calls from anyone & handle how you want
- One fixed monthly price per user has you covered
- Savings – Enjoy the cheapest calls in the UK. Slash calls costs with HUGE reductions in your total cost of telecoms. Traditional VoIP systems come with a lot of overheads in addition to the actual switchboard & phones. Plus, they tie staff down when they could actually be far more efficient.
- No engineers, installation or fault charges
- Lose the office mobile phones & contracts
- Dump the desk phone & associated costs
- International calls – Use your mobile Internationally – but only pay local rates. Our phone numbers are REAL in every sense & work just like any other number. Make & receive international calls for same cost and call quality as making a local call.
- Choose Numbers from over 9000+ Cities
- Activate landline (National or Geographic) or mobile
- Add as many numbers as you need
- High quality international calls – Struggling to understand people when making international VoIP placed calls? These calls can be very draining, tedious & often frustrating. ConXhub makes low quality & dropped calls a thing of the past!
- No call dropping
- Crystal clear, high quality calls
- Protect your data allowance plan
- Blowfish effect – Create instant virtual offices. Create numbers in mins and give yourself a really BIG business image. Having multiple international numbers enables you to be just that – multinational! Appear to be anywhere in the world, for any reason & leverage the cost savings of offices in cities you wish to be present without being there.
- Choose numbers from over 9,000+ cities
- Highest quality connectivity
- Raise the bar, compete with the big fish
- Set up virtual offices in an instant – ConXhub allows you to choose a number from over 60 countries so that you can be local to your customer base. Unlimited REAL numbers all available on your one phone, one SIM.
- Create as many NEW numbers as you like
- Manage work calls from your personal mobile
- Save your data, enjoy low cost international calls
- Business growth – Grow & scale fast without delays from BT. Flexible, easy and super fast. Expand your business & open in new sales territories literally within minutes! Instantly set up virtual offices in any city & be global without delay.
- Build a business empire FAST
- Multiple numbers on one phone
- Set up virtual offices in an instant
- Additional Numbers – Add as many numbers as you need, to your Mobile Phone. Our phone numbers are REAL in every sense & work just like any other number. They are simply not attached to any lines or equipment. Make & receive calls – just like your regular landline or mobile number.
- Choose numbers from over 9000+ cities
- Activate landline (National or Geographic) or mobile
- Add as many numbers as you need
What are you waiting for? Hide your phone number instantly and so much more with ConXhub now
Chat with one of our Team who will be delighted to answer your queries and set you up a demo – book a call here: https://conxhub.com/demo/
Alternatively, try ConXhub’s features for free and see for yourself how this evolutionary system works.
