Calling someone from a private number is a great way to ensure your anonymity while still being able to contact them. You can achieve this by masking your identity on your landline, iPhone, or Android device.
Being anonymous can be especially useful in situations like
- debt collection calls
- job interviews
- calling someone who need not know your number
- Lodging complaints at government offices or agencies
Learn more about a private number and how to call from a private number in this Community Phone guide.
What is a Private Number?
A private number is not visible or traceable when you use it to make calls, send texts, or communicate. People use private numbers to hide their identity from the person they want to reach, to protect their privacy, to avoid harassment, or for anonymity.
How to Call From A Private Number
Here are ways to mask your caller ID and make a call from a private number:
1. The *67 Code
Follow these steps to hide your caller ID on a landline
- Pick up the receiver
- Dial *67 after hearing the dial tone
- Dial the 10-digit number you want to reach
- Your number will appear as “private” or “unknown” on the recipient’s caller ID.
2. Hide your Caller ID on Android and iPhone
On iPhone
- Access Settings
- Choose the Phone menu
- Select “Show my caller ID” and choose “Switch off.”
Switching off the caller ID on your iPhone will hide your identity, and the recipient will not be able to see it when you call them.
On Android,
- Access the Phone app
- Choose settings
- Navigate to More Settings
- Select Show My Caller ID and choose Hide Number
- Press cancel to exit the menu
These steps will hide your ID from the recipient when you call from an Android device.
Switch to Community Phone for an Outstanding Calling Experience
Community Phone, the best home phone service in the US, is fighting to keep the landline alive.
The company provides reliable landline service through its wireless landline base that connects your home phone to local cell towers.
The unique design of the landline base and partnership with carriers nationwide ensure you get solid coverage across 99% of the US, including rural areas. Since the wireless home phone base does not depend on the internet, your phones will work during network or power outages.
Enjoy excellent voice quality, the reliability of a landline, and wireless access at affordable prices. With features like call waiting, 3-way calling, spam call blocking, caller ID, call history, and landline texting, Community Phone is the best landline service for you.
How It Works
The Community Phone landline base does not tie your phone to the internet as it works off resilient cell towers. The company's partnership with nationwide carriers and the unique design of the landline base ensure connectivity across 99% of the U.S., including rural areas. The built-in antennas on the base amplify signals from mobile towers to ensure superior voice quality in low-reception areas.
The 12-hour backup battery in the base ensures your phones continue working during a power outage or blackout in your area.
Community Phone Landline Features
1. Spam Call Blocking
Studies reveal that scammers make an average of 200 million calls yearly. With 1 in 3 Americans becoming victims of phone scams, manual call blocking is no longer effective in blocking spam.
According to reports, con artists have also discovered a technique to get around the STIR/SHAKEN regulations that the government has implemented for customer safety. You need a powerful spam blocker that can block unwanted calls before your phone rings to protect yourself from scams and fraud.
Get the Community Phone spam-blocker, your one-stop solution to barring unwanted and unlawful calls. The spam blocker challenges robocalls and blocks them before the call can ring your phone, ensuring protection against spam.
The "Safelist," a new Community Phone feature, allows you to list the numbers you want to accept calls from. Your phone will ring to let calls from these numbers through and block all others. You can update your allowed list anytime to add or delete numbers or contact Community Phone for assistance.
Studies report that several people miss legitimate calls fearing spam. To provide robust spam protection and help you answer legitimate calls, Community Phone is launching another iteration of the Safelist. It will allow you to accept calls from the numbers you want and route the rest to voicemail. You can check your voice messages and respond to legitimate ones.
The soon-to-be-launched "blocklist" is an aggressive spam blocker that blocks over 6 million spam calls based on an ever-growing database of spam numbers and a spam score. You can actively contribute to this database by adding a spam number to protect yourself and other Community Phone customers from scams and fraud.
Talk to Community Phone specialists to learn more!
2. Call Waiting
The call-waiting feature helps you handle two calls simultaneously. You will hear 2 beeps when there is an incoming call while you are engaged on one call. You can place the first call on hold, talk to the second caller, or route it to voicemail.
3. Call Forwarding
Enable call forwarding to forward important calls when you cannot answer them from your business landline. You can opt from one of the several Community Phone options to forward your business calls to a number of your choice.
Temporary Forwarding: Use the manual process to turn call forwarding ON/OFF if you are temporarily away from your business phone. Here's how you can enable it:
- Get a dial tone
- Dial **21*1
- Dial the 10-digit number you want the calls forwarded to and #
- Three beeps will indicate you have enabled call forwarding
Follow the same steps, but press ##21# to turn off call forwarding.
Unconditional Forwarding: Forward all calls from your landline to a cell phone or another number of your choice and ditch your landline.
Conditional Forwarding: You can program several phone numbers to ring simultaneously with one incoming call, allowing the person available to answer the call.
You can also have numbers ring in succession if the first number is busy or does not answer. For example, your cell phone can ring if you do not answer your landline within 20 seconds.
4. Call History
Enable the call history feature and access information on incoming and outgoing calls to and from your Community Phone landline.
You can use this feature to
- Return missed calls from known contacts
- Store legitimate contacts
- Check caller information against known contacts
- Send a message or
- Block spam calls.
5. Caller ID
On Outgoing Calls
Opt for the caller ID feature so the recipient can see your number or name when you make outbound calls. This feature can help loved ones answer your call or return missed calls without mistaking them as spam.
Incoming Calls
You will be able to see the caller ID of the person calling you if:
- The person has enabled caller ID
- Has registered in the national register
- Your phone can support the caller ID feature.
Community Phone does not use third-party apps to provide the caller ID feature.
6. Landline Texting
Studies reveal that millennials and later generations prefer texting to talking. Stay in touch with younger children or grandchildren by texting them from your Community Phone landline through the landline texting feature. The unlimited text feature and 2-way messaging enable you to see the messages from the recipient and continue the conversation.
7. 3-way Calling
Connect with 2 or more of your loved ones simultaneously with the 3-way calling feature, spend some great moments, and create memorable experiences. You can connect with your loved ones on the same call and hear them speak simultaneously without worrying about free calling apps, internet bandwidth, or patchy and dropped internet calls.
Benefits of Switching to Community Phone
Besides having a reliable landline service that does not require internet, Community Phone members enjoy the following benefits:
Unlimited nationwide calling and text: Stay in touch with loved ones across the U.S. with Community Phone's unlimited talk and text.
No internet needed: The Community Phone landline base works off cell towers without tying your phone to the internet. Since your phones are not dependent on the internet, they will continue working during an internet outage or maintenance.
Number choice: You can get a new local number FREE when you sign up with Community Phone. You can also transfer your existing number through their unique hand-held porting process.
Zero-cost Installation: The landline base does not require a technician to install it. You or anyone in your business or household can install your Community Phone landline in under 30 seconds and be ready to make calls in 5 mins.
24/7 reliable customer support: Contact Community Phone customer support via phone, email, and live chat 24/7 to experience world-class support from live agents. Glowing customer reviews on BBB and Trustpilot are testimonies of their commitment to customers.
Works during power outages: The 12-hour backup battery in the landline base ensures your phones continue working during power outages and blackouts.
FAQs
What happens when you call someone with * 67?
Your caller ID is hidden when you call someone using the *67 code on your landline. Your number will appear as “private” or “unknown” on the recipient’s caller ID. Remember to enter the code before you dial the 10-digit number for the person you want to reach
Conclusion
This article provides information on how to call anonymously from a private number on a landline, Android, and iPhone. While calling anonymously can be helpful in certain situations, caution should be taken to ensure these methods are not used for unscrupulous purposes.
Get Community Phone for a seamless landline experience and stay connected with loved ones and friends across the US with unlimited minutes. With the reliability of a landline, freedom of wireless, and excellent calling features at affordable prices, Community Phone is the best wireless home phone service in the US.