How to make your phone number appear different? Making your phone number appear different when you text or call someone is a useful practice and a surprisingly common technique that has been used for decades in many different real-life situations.
Why make your phone number appear different?
There could be many different reasons why you would want to make your phone number appear different and not allow your real phone number to be seen by the person you are calling or texting.
For example, if you are running a business, but want to work from home on a particular day- you can have your phone call made to appear as your office phone number. That way, your customers can be 'tricked' to think that you are calling from the office when you are not actually there.
On another hand, if you were blocked by someone, and desperately want to call or text the person, you may want to make your phone number appear different in order to bypass the block. It will work because your contact's phone does not actually see the incoming number as your real number, and therefore allowing the call or text to go through.
How do I make my number appear different?
There are generally two techniques that you can use.
The first is Caller ID Spoofing, which essentially forces the number seen on your contact's device to be appear as something else.
The second technique is the use of Second Phone Numbers, which essentially works by acquiring another private phone number that you can call and text from.
How does each technique work and which is better having considered its effectiveness, ethical and legal implications? We will find out which technique we prefer to make your phone number appear different.
Caller ID Spoofing- What is it and how does it work?
Caller ID spoofing is actually one of the of the most common techniques used commonly by pranksters and scammers to make their phone number appear different when you text or call.
The age-old technique uses a few different methods to make your phone number appear different. One way is to use software to enable VOIP, and another is to use various Caller ID Spoofing services to do this.
Scammers and pranksters commonly use Caller ID Spoofing to trick the receiver to believe they are someone that they are not, and then to extract sensitive information from the person or to persuade the person to perform a certain act that is against his or her free will.
Is it illegal?
Caller ID Spoofing is illegal- when it is used in certain situations such as when the caller is trying to trick the person into revealing personal information or to conduct fraud.
Downsides: Spoofed Caller IDs cannot receive reply(!)
We generally would recommend not to attempt Caller ID Spoofing due to its downsides. If you use Caller ID Spoofing to call or text someone, you will not be able to receive a text reply or return call from the person since the number does not actually belong to you.
Second Phone numbers- A receive replies and more works better to text and call
Second Phone Numbers is far better method to make your phone number appear different. It is regarded as more modern technique and is generally very easy to perform, especially if you are using a Second Phone number App
Second Phone numbers- How do they work?
You can purchase a second phone number from an app like Phoner, that can act as a private second phone number that you can directly call and send texts from.
Here is how you can use Phoner. First, you can tap on Menu and select 'Get Premium Number', and the select a country and area code in which you want your number to be from. Then you select from one of the available numbers and choose the duration you want to keep the number for.
Download Phoner app for changing phone numbers.
With the second phone number in Phoner, you can now not only text and call directly from another phone number, but even receive texts and calls back at the number.
Conclusion
Phoner is a one of the most cost effective way of owning a Second phone number, and to make your phone number appear different to text and call customer, friends, strangers that you meet online and so on. The benefit of Phoner is you pay for credits to send and receive text and call only when you need it, as compared to maintaining a separate postpaid line with mobile carriers, or with Caller ID Spoofing services where a subscription is needed.
See Phoner App for iOS, or Phoner App for Android, or Phoner Web Messenger.