There's a missed call on your phone from a number you don't recognise. No voicemail. You want to ring back and find out who it was — but you'd rather not hand your own number to whoever picks up.
So you dial *67 first, and your number vanishes from their screen.
It's the oldest privacy trick on the phone network, it still works, and it's more limited than most people realise. Here's exactly what it does, what it doesn't, and when it's the wrong tool.
What does *67 do?
Dialling *67 before a phone number hides your caller ID for that one call.
The person you're calling sees "No Caller ID," "Private," "Blocked," or "Withheld," depending on their phone and carrier. They don't see your number, and they don't see your name.
It's not doing anything clever. Your number still travels with the call exactly as it normally would — that's how the phone network works — but it arrives with a flag attached that tells the receiving phone not to display it. The number is present the whole way. It's just marked "don't show this."
*67 is free, works from any phone, and needs no setup. It applies to one call only. The next call you make shows your number again unless you dial it again.
How to use it
Dial the code, then the full number, with no pause and no space:
*67 415 555 0177On a mobile, type the whole thing into the keypad before hitting call. On a landline, dial it as one continuous string.
The code depends on where you are:
| Country | Code to hide your number | Code to show it |
|---|---|---|
| US and Canada | *67 |
*82 |
| UK and Ireland | 141 |
1470 |
| Australia | #31# |
*31# |
| New Zealand | 0197 |
*197 |
On a rotary or pulse-dial landline in North America, 1167 does the same job as *67.
If your number is permanently withheld — some carriers offer this as a free line setting — then *82 works in reverse, revealing your number for a single call. Useful when someone won't answer a private call.
What *67 does not do
This is where people get caught out. It hides your number from the person you're calling, and that's genuinely all it does.
- It doesn't hide you from your phone company. Your call is logged exactly as any other, appears on your bill, and can be disclosed under legal process.
- It doesn't work on 911. Emergency services receive your number and location regardless. This is deliberate and can't be switched off.
- It doesn't work on toll-free numbers. Because the called party pays for the call, 800, 888, 877 and similar numbers receive your number through a separate system called ANI, whatever you dial first.
- It doesn't hide text messages.
*67applies to calls only. There's no equivalent code for SMS. - It doesn't stop call-tracing. Someone receiving harassing calls can dial
*57immediately afterwards to have the carrier trace the origin for law enforcement. - It doesn't stop them recognising you. If they've saved your number before, some phones will still match it. And if you've called them before without it, the connection is easy to make.
- It doesn't always survive. Some VoIP services, call-tracking systems, and internal business phone systems don't honour the flag properly, and a few will display your number anyway.
Never assume *67 makes a call untraceable. It's a display setting, not anonymity. If you're making a call you wouldn't want connected back to you, it doesn't provide the protection you think it does.
The real problem: nobody answers
*67 works perfectly and still fails constantly, for one reason. A withheld number is one of the least-answered things on any phone.
iPhones have a Silence Unknown Callers setting that sends anything without a recognised number straight to voicemail without ringing. Android has equivalents. Plenty of people leave them permanently on. Plenty more simply decline anything showing "No Caller ID," because after years of scam calls, that's what a blocked call looks like.
And there's no way back. If they miss your call, they can't return it. You'd have to keep ringing, which makes you look worse rather than better.
So *67 is best for calls where the person answers everything anyway — a business, a front desk, a shop, an office line. For calling an individual who doesn't know you, it's usually the worst option available.
Is *67 legal?
Yes. Withholding your number is a standard feature every carrier provides, and using it is entirely lawful.
It's also worth being clear that it isn't caller ID spoofing. Spoofing means showing a different number; *67 means showing no number. One substitutes an identity, the other removes it. That's why *67 sits outside the rules that govern misleading caller ID — there's nothing misleading about a blank.
Two practical exceptions worth knowing. Many people and businesses block withheld calls outright, so you may find some numbers simply unreachable. And if you're calling in a professional capacity, hiding your number rarely reads as professional.
When you want something better
If what you actually want is for someone to reach you without having your personal number, *67 is the wrong shape of tool. It gives privacy at the cost of being contactable, and usually at the cost of being answered at all.
A second line — a real additional number that rings your same phone — solves the same problem without either downside. The person sees a normal number, answers at a normal rate, and can call you back. Your personal line stays private, and if the number ever attracts nuisance calls, you drop it.
That matters more than it sounds. Your phone number is now attached to your bank, your two-factor codes, and your account recovery across dozens of services. Handing it to a stranger to ask one question is a bad trade — but so is being unreachable.
Spoofey offers second numbers on both unlimited and pay-as-you-go plans, so you can keep one permanently or pick one up for a single conversation. It also lets you set the number displayed on your outgoing calls, which covers the cases a second line doesn't — showing a business main line instead of a personal mobile, or keeping a call private without going fully anonymous. That control has limits: banks and payment providers, government agencies, and emergency services are blocked, along with any use aimed at fraud or harassment. Privacy is the point; impersonation isn't.
If you're making outbound calls for a business, be aware that a withheld number can't build any reputation with the spam-filtering systems that score calls. A registered, consistent business number will always get through more reliably than a hidden one.
!faq !faq-q Does *67 still work in 2026? !faq-a Yes. It's a standard carrier feature in the US and Canada and works from mobiles and landlines alike. What has changed is how well it performs: far more people now silence or decline calls from withheld numbers than a decade ago.
!faq-q What does the other person see when I use *67? !faq-a "No Caller ID," "Private," "Blocked," or "Withheld," depending on their handset and carrier. They see no number and no name.
!faq-q Does *67 work on cell phones? !faq-a Yes. Type it directly before the number on the keypad, with no space, then press call. It works the same way on both iPhone and Android since the carrier handles it, not the phone.
!faq-q Can someone find out my number if I used *67? !faq-a Not through their phone. Your carrier still has the record, emergency services still receive it, toll-free numbers receive it anyway, and someone getting harassing calls can dial *57 to have the call traced for law enforcement. It hides your number from the recipient, not from the system.
!faq-q Why didn't *67 work on the number I called? !faq-a The most likely reason is that you called a toll-free number, which receives your number regardless. It can also fail on some VoIP services and business phone systems that don't handle the withheld flag correctly, and emergency numbers always receive it.
!faq-q How do I hide my number on every call instead of one? !faq-a Most carriers offer permanent per-line blocking free on request. Once it's on, you dial *82 before a number to reveal your number for a single call, which is the reverse of *67.
!faq-q Is using *67 illegal? !faq-a No. Withholding your number is a normal carrier feature and perfectly legal. It's also different from spoofing, which means displaying a different number rather than none at all.
!faq-q Does *67 hide my number for text messages? !faq-a No. It applies only to voice calls, and there's no dialling code equivalent for SMS. Hiding your number on texts requires a separate number, such as a second line. !faq-end
*67 does one thing well and has done it for decades: it takes your number off someone's screen for a single call. The mistake is expecting it to do more — to make you anonymous, to keep you reachable, or to get you answered. It does none of those. Used for what it is, it's still the fastest privacy tool on any phone. Used as a substitute for a number you'd actually want people to call back, it fails every time.
