Phone Number Masking is an advanced system that is designed to hide the sensitive information of businesses and customers by decrypting their actual contact numbers. In that way, both parties can only see a temporary number while communicating. This protects each individual’s personal information and prevents privacy breaches.
Phone masking technology helps companies take proactive steps to protect customer data and make them feel secure. By using such methods, organizations show their customers how much they are concerned about your privacy.
Phone Number Masking: A Complete Guide for Beginners
In this detailed phone number masking guide, we will discuss what is phone number masking, the working functionality of number masking and the benefits of phone number masking for businesses. So you are advised to go through this complete phone number masking guide to understand this topic better and clear all your queries.
Let’s start the call masking detailed guide …
What is Call Masking and How Can Someone Mask Their Phone Number?
Phone number masking is the advanced process of hiding or obscuring a phone number so that it is not completely visible or easily identifiable.
Businesses use the following ways to mask their phone numbers-
Phone number Masking Through Third-Party Service Providers
It is one of the most effective, secure and reliable ways to mask your phone number. You will find various phone masking solution providers over the web, and you can use their services to hide your phone numbers. But before availing of a call masking service from any service provider, you must check and validate the quality of their services.
Virtual Phone Number
Call masking can also be done by using a virtual phone number, a telephone number not tied to a specific phone line or device. To use call masking with a virtual number, you can sign up for a virtual phone number service and select a virtual number that will be used for your calls.
When you place a call using the same number, the Call will be forwarded from your actual phone, but the recipients will only be able to see the virtual number given by the virtual number service provider on their phone display. This allows you to place calls while keeping your phone number private.
There are many virtual phone number service providers that offer Call masking solutions as a feature. These service providers allow you to choose a virtual phone number service that is capable of meeting all your needs within your budget. You just need to sign up for a virtual number to use for the call masking feature and protect your identity from online intruders and spammers.
Phone Number Blocking Service
Some phone carriers offer services that enable users to block or hide their phone number from being displayed on the recipient’s phone when they make a call.
Call Forwarding
Call Forwarding service is the simplest yet most effective technique for call masking. This service lets you forward the calls made on your phone to another phone number.
A Burner Phone
It is a pre-paid cell phone that can be used for a short period and then discarded. Because the phone does not store your personal information, it can be used to mask your phone number.
Call Masking: Prime Benefits For A Business
Call masking enables organizations to hide their business’ and customers’ phone numbers. This is quite useful for a variety of reasons, including-
Privacy
Call masking allows businesses to protect the privacy of their employees or clients by concealing their phone numbers. Also, some people may want to mask their phone numbers when calling companies or individuals they do not know well to protect their personal information and privacy.
Professionalism
With the help of call masking services, organizations can create a professional image of their business in the eyes of their customers by offering them dedicated business phone numbers instead of personal numbers.
Spam Prevention
With the help of call masking, businesses hide their phone numbers from telemarketers and other unwanted callers to avoid spam and unwanted calls.
Marketing
Call masking can also be used as a marketing tool, allowing businesses to track the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by using different phone numbers for different ads.
Conducting Market Research
Market research firms use call masking to hide their identity when conducting surveys to get more honest and unbiased responses from participants.
Protecting The Identity of Victims
Law enforcement agencies and victim advocacy groups use call masking to protect the identity of victims of domestic abuse, stalking, or other crimes.
Business Use
Some businesses use call masking to protect their employees’ privacy or hide their company’s identity when making calls for marketing or other purposes.
In short, Phone number masking enables businesses to protect their privacy, maintain a professional image, and help them to track and measure their marketing efforts more effectively.
How Phone Number Masking Works and How Call Masking Can It Be Used?
Number masking is used to obscure or replace the original digits of a phone number, credit card number, or other sensitive information with placeholder characters, such as asterisks or X’s. This can be done for various reasons, such as privacy, security, and data protection.
Here are a few examples of how number masking might be used:
Credit Card Masking
When you make a purchase online or over the phone, you will typically be asked to provide your credit card number, expiration date, and security code. To protect your sensitive financial information, the merchant uses number masking to obscure all or part of your credit card number. For example, suppose your credit card number is 1234-5678-9012-3456, the merchant might show it as “1234—3456” or “–****-3456” on the payment form.
Data Masking
In a database or spreadsheet, number masking can protect sensitive information, such as salary or medical records. For example, a database administrator might use number masking to replace the actual salary figures with a range or average so that individual employees’ salaries are not revealed.
There are many ways to implement number masking, depending on the specific requirements and use case. Some systems may use simple techniques, such as replacing all but the first few and last few digits with asterisks, while others may use more advanced techniques, such as encryption or hashing, to protect the original numbers.
Read More: How To Schedule WhatsApp Messages Using WhatsApp Business API?
Why Is Number Masking Important for Users and Businesses?
Phone number masking is a technique used to protect the privacy of individuals by replacing their phone numbers with proxy numbers. This can be important in today’s scenario for several reasons.
Number masking can help to protect against identity theft and other types of fraud. If an individual’s phone number is compromised, it can be used to gain access to sensitive personal information or to impersonate that individual. By masking the phone number, it becomes much more difficult for fraudsters to obtain this type of information.
Call masking improves customer experience by allowing individuals to communicate with businesses or other organizations without revealing their personal phone numbers. This can be highly useful for individuals who want to avoid receiving calls or texts from unknown numbers or are concerned about their privacy.
So, we can say that number masking can provide many benefits for both individuals and businesses, including enhanced security, privacy and a more positive customer experience.
How Does Number Masking Participate in Customer Satisfaction?
Phone number masking can increase customer satisfaction by providing customers with an additional layer of privacy and security when they make phone calls or send text messages. This can be particularly important for customers who are worried about their personal information being shared with third parties or who are concerned about being contacted by telemarketers or other unwanted callers.
Additionally, number masking can prevent customer frustration by reducing the number of unwanted calls and texts received.
Also, it contributes to customer satisfaction by giving customers more control over who has access to their personal information and by helping to reduce unwanted phone calls and texts.
What Are the Real-World Use Cases of Call Masking?
Phone number masking is a technique used to protect the privacy of individuals by hiding their phone numbers when they communicate with others. There are several real-world use cases for phone number masking, including:
Online Classified Ads
You may not want to reveal your phone number to the general public when posting an ad online. Phone number masking lets you keep your phone number private while allowing interested parties to contact you.
Customer Service
When interacting with customers, companies use phone number masking to protect the privacy of their employees. This can be useful in cases where the customer may be angry or abusive.
Research Studies
When conducting research studies, researchers use phone number masking to protect participants’ privacy, and this is highly effective when the research involves sensitive topics.
Political Campaigns
Political campaigns may use phone number masking to protect the privacy of volunteers and supporters.
How Does Call Masking Work With E-commerce?
Call masking can be used in various ways in the context of e-commerce. Here are a few examples:
Customer Service
E-commerce companies use call masking to protect the privacy of their customer service representatives when they make calls to customers. This can help prevent the representative’s personal information from being disclosed to the customer.
Fraud Detection and Prevention
E-commerce companies use call masking to prevent fraud by masking the phone numbers of their employees when they call customers to verify orders or ask for additional information. Number masking protects the company and its employees from fraudulent activities.
Marketing
With the help of number masking, E-com businesses hide their company’s identity when making marketing calls to potential customers. The number masking techniques help the company from being blocked or labeled as spam by customers who do not want to receive calls.
How Does Phone Number Masking Work With Healthcare?
Call masking is being used in the healthcare industry in multiple ways. Here are a few examples:
Protecting Patient Privacy
Healthcare providers use call masking to protect the privacy of their patients when they make calls to discuss sensitive medical information. With this service’s help, patients prevent disclosing their personal information to unauthorized parties.
Spam Prevention
Call masking enables healthcare providers to prevent fraud by masking the phone numbers of their employees when they call patients to verify insurance information or ask for additional information.
Marketing & Sales
Healthcare providers use call masking to hide the identity of their clinics when making marketing calls to patients.
How Does Call Masking Work With Food Delivery and Online Cabs Facility?
Food delivery and online cab services are using call masking techniques for some valid reasons listed below-
Protecting Driver/ Delivery Agent’s Privacy
Food delivery and online cab companies use call masking to protect the privacy of their drivers when they make calls to customers to discuss delivery or pickup details.
Fraud Prevention
Food delivery and online cab companies use Call masking to prevent fraud by masking the phone numbers of their employees when they connect with customers to verify orders or ask for additional information.
How to Select the Best Phone Number Masking Service Provider in India?
Factors you should consider when selecting a call masking service provider in India-
Service Cost
Compare the prices of different service providers to determine which one provides the best value for money.
Features
Ensure the provider offers the needed features, such as call masking, forwarding, voicemail, and caller ID masking.
Reliability
Look for a service provider with a good reputation for reliability and uptime.
Customer Support
It’s essential to have good customer support if you have any issues with the service.
Privacy
Ensure the provider has strong privacy policies to protect your personal information. It may also be helpful to read reviews and ask for recommendations from friends or colleagues who have experience with call masking services in India.
Conclusion
Call masking allows the caller and recipient to remain anonymous during their conversation. The recipient of the Call only sees the temporary phone number and cannot determine the caller’s true identity. Call masking is useful for various reasons, such as protecting one’s privacy, avoiding unwanted calls or texts, or conducting business calls anonymously.
I hope the article has solved all your queries related to phone masking. If you are a business owner and concerned about the identity of your customers and employees, you can avail of call masking service from Fonada, India’s most trusted cloud telephony service provider and strengthen your client base by offering them a secure environment for business communication.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Phone Number Masking?
Number masking is a technique which is used to protect the privacy of callers and recipients by replacing the original phone number with a different number. Businesses use this technique for various reasons including to prevent unwanted calls or texts, or to protect the identity of parties involved in telephonic conversation.
What Are The Call Masking Features?
- Prevents Identity Theft
- Offers secure channel for business communication
- Enhance Customer satisfaction
- Maintain a Professional Image of Your Business
