Your smartphone rings but the incoming call has no phone number.

Who could that be? Your friend? Your boss? Or some stranger? When we receive a call with no caller ID, it gets highly frustrating trying to determine who is trying to get to us. Do we pick up the phone or not?

If these are some of your concerns when you see a call with no caller ID, fret no more. Let us break down for you how these people have no called id, who they could be and how to protect your phone from malicious no-caller-id calls.

How is it that they have no caller id?

Technically, these calls do have caller id, but the callers intentionally prevent you from seeing their phone number. They simply conceal their caller id, to put it simply. And the method to conceal your number can be rather straightforward.

Add *67 to the call number

This might not be something you are aware of but one of the easiest method is to add *67 before your phone number.

Apply for a blocking code

Another method used is through a blocking code to hide their caller id. Only need to input their phone model country and carrier information to determine their block code

Number spoofing

A call without a caller ID could also be a result of number spoofing. The caller ID in such a scenario will be changed to a bogus phone number to conceal the caller’s original caller ID.

Number Spoofing is a method to create a call with no caller id

Is it possible to find out who called?

Technically no. It is technically not possible to find out who called. The only way is to redial the number, by pressing the redial button or dialing *69 if you are in North America. Another method is to hope the caller returns a voicemail, assuming he isn’t a scammer or a spam caller to begin with.

However, if both options fail, there is no way to find out who called you. The good news is there are ways to prevent these callers from calling and we will teach you how to avoid receiving calls with no caller ID later.

And who could they be?

People who blocks the caller id do so with the intent to conceal their identity. Often than not, these people include scammers and telemarketers. Scammers seek to hide their caller id and call you to extract personal information from you while telemarketers who ignore the “Do not call” list and want to sell you their products or dubious deals while remaining anonymous to the users will use such a method.

How to protect yourselves?

Against the scammers and these telemarketers, how do you protect yourself from a call with no caller ID?

Don’t pick up the call

First and foremost, it is advisable not to pick up these calls, especially if these are suspicious numbers with no caller id. If the caller was a real person, the call would have gone to voicemail to leave a message.

Don’t entertain no caller id conversation

Even if you accidentally pick up a phone call from a no-caller-id, don’t entertain them. You run the risk of exposing your personal information to the caller especially when you are unsure if the caller is credible or simply a scammer

Second phone line

How should you then avoid receiving any phone calls with no caller id? The trick here is to never give out your real phone number to strangers or organizations. Your number gets sold and shared across various calling list, including no-caller-id people.

Instead, get a second phone number to redirect all these calls with no caller id to your second phone line. Getting a second phone number is easy with apps like Phoner. Get numbers in over 30 countries using such apps.