Caller ID...ed!

[Sk8trBoi]

I used a phone card to call someone's cellphone last night, and jokingly left a cryptic message. Imagine my surprise when they called back my phone and said "Who is this?".

Thank god I wasn't doing something suspicious! I really really really REALLY thought phone info was lost when going through a phone card. For that matter, I thought my home phone had "send number" turned off.

Could someone pls. remind me how to do the LATTER (some *58 or *39 or somesuch). And what's the deal on the FORMER -- do all phone cards just pass along the number dialed from?

Like dialing up to an ISP and sending an email (esp from webmail), I thought phone cards provided a solid layer of anonymity. Sure, I knew police or someone could always trace it back in a pinch (ditto the dialup), but I didn't really think the number was passed along willy-nilly to Joe Recipient on the other end.

I'd be just as surprised if someone here told me what phone number I was sending a post like this from! That's what it felt like when they called me back last night.

[bruce bailey]

To block your number from being sent, dial *67 first. It may be different in other locations.

[Sk8trBoi]

It's worse than I thought. The phone book points out that "callerID blocking does not apply to calls made to the phone company itself, emergency services such as 911, or 800 numbers".

"800 numbers"?!

Sure enough, an agent at Verizon confirmed that since the recipient is basically paying for the call, he/she has a right to see where it's coming from. He was a little surprised that my calling card passed the number on to my callee, but said that it may vary from card to card. HOWEVER (and here is the shocker), he said that since cellphone callers are also "paying for the call" (in terms of minutes), THEY TOO have a right to override callerID blocking!!!!

Again, it varies from wireless company to wireless company, but bottom line, even if you block number-send (either long term thru the telco, or for any given call with the *67 you mentioned), the number could very well show up on recipient's cellphone!

Worse yet (this is getting depressing), he said that some landline companies don't honor/recognize ID blocking, so if you're making long-distance calls, especially to a distant state/region, there's SOME possibility your number will be displayed, even on a landline (if they've got CallerID to read it, of course).

Bottom line: Number blocking ain't what it used to be!

Don't think I'll be asking for "Prince Edward in a can" anytime soon....