How to Make Your Mobile Phone Number Appear As a Private Number

Want to hide your number from the business you're about to call, or don't want your friends knowing who's calling them? You can block your Caller ID information so that your number does not appear on the recipient's phone. You can do this by using a special prefix, contacting your carrier, or by using the features on your device. See Step 1 below to learn how.

1

Use a caller ID blocking prefix. In many countries, you can enter a code before you dial a number and your phone number will be blocked from appearing on the recipient's caller ID. The code varies depending on your country and your service provider, and it is not possible to block in all countries. Enter the prefix, followed immediately by the number you are dialing. For example, if you are in the US and want to call (555)123-4567, you would enter *675551234567.

• North America - *67 or #31#
• Albania, Australia, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden: #31#
• Argentina, Iceland, Switzerland, South Africa: *31*
• Germany: *31# or #31#
• Hong Kong: 133
• Japan: 184
• UK and Ireland: 141
• New Zealand: 0197 (Telecom) or *67 (Vodafone)
• Australia: 1831 or #31#
• India: *31# - Must be enabled by network.

If your country is not listed, chances are you can use either *67 or #31#. Most GSM mobile networks work with #31#.^[1]

2

Contact your carrier. If you want all of your phone calls to always be blocked, you can contact your carrier and set up permanent Caller ID blocking. There is typically a charge for this, and the fees and terms will vary from carrier to carrier.

• Most pre-paid plans cannot enable permanent Caller ID blocking.
• India users need to enable Caller ID blocking before they can use the blocking prefix.
• Some people have Anonymous Call Rejection enabled, which means your call will not be able to be completed unless you call from an unblocked number.
• If you want to make an unblocked call after setting up a block on all your outgoing calls, you will need to enter the unblocking prefix before the phone number. Some of these include:
  • Australia: 1832
  • Ireland: 142
  • UK: 1470
  • North America: *82
  • New Zealand: 0196 (Telecom) or *82 (Vodafone)
  • Hong Kong: 1357
  • Japan: 186
  • Most GSM Networks: *31#
    
• 3
  Hide your number through your device's settings. Many phones allow you to block your Caller ID information by changing the phone's settings. If your phone does not have the option to do this, then it is not allowed by your carrier, and you will have to try one of the previous steps.

  • iPhone - Open the Settings app, tap Phone, tap Show My Caller ID, and then toggle the slider to ON.^[2]
  • Android 4.0 and earlier - Open the Settings app, tap Call, tap "Additional settings", tap Caller ID, and then tap "Hide number".
  • Android 4.1 and later - Open the Phone app, tap the Menu button, tap "Call settings", tap Caller ID, tap "Hide number".^[3]
  • Windows Phone 8 - Open the Phone app, tap the More button (...), tap "settings", tap the box under "Show my caller ID to", tap "no one" or "my contacts".^[4]
  • BlackBerry - Press the Menu key, click Options, click General Options, find the Restrict My Identity field, set it to Always.^[5]