Your phone rings but by the time you retrieve it from your bag, the caller has already hung up without leaving a message. You look in the missed calls section and discover that it was a private call. If you are expecting an important call, it would certainly be useful to be able to call back a hidden number. But is this technically possible? This is the question that the editorial staff of Prodigemobile will answer.
How to call back a hidden number
Some smart guys have fun calling you and disturbing you several times a day. Of course, these individuals have taken care to mask their identifier before committing their misdeed. For those who are interested, here is the procedure to hide your phone number from an Android smartphone.
The web is full of articles and tutorials proposing tips to call an unknown number. Beware, most of these sites only translate American texts. Unfortunately, the advice provided on these pages will not work in France. In the United States, mobile operators have a service (*69) that allows you to call back any correspondent, including a masked number.
In France, there was a similar system for fixed lines called 3131. But this one stopped working on January 31, 2021 due to costs. As the service was not profitable enough, the operator Orange preferred to stop it.
As of today, no system allows you to call back a masked number in France, except of course a court decision (request for requisition by the police) following a complaint for harassment.
Beware of paying solutions promising to find out the name of the person hiding behind a masked number. Indeed, there are tools on the net that are supposed to unmask the phone number of masked callers. This is a scam or a system that only works in certain countries.
If you live outside of France, you should know that most operators offer a call log (incoming and outgoing) that is accessible from your customer account. In some countries, these devices allow you to have additional information on your correspondents such as the number of an unknown call.
To avoid being harassed, you can block unknown numbers on your Android smartphone so that they are automatically redirected to your answering machine.
Why are some of my incoming calls masked?
More and more people want to remain anonymous when they call. You may be one of those people. If this is the case, you should know that it is very easy to prevent your number from being displayed on the caller’s phone.
You will find on this site many tutorials allowing you to perform this type of operation. If you are in a hurry and you don’t want to go through all the Android options, the trick is to dial the code #31# just before your phone number.
- Open the phone application of your phone
- Click on the dial a phone number tab
- Type #31# followed by the number of your correspondent
- For example #31#060102….
Your interlocutor will not see your phone number displayed on the screen of his smartphone. Of course, this is a temporary solution. The next time you make a call without adding the code #31# your number will appear.