How to Activate a Ghost Phone

One of the Urban Dictionary definitions of Ghost Phone is a phone that cannot be tracked. People in the U.K. use the term ghost phone number to describe a number that is not assigned to a physical location in the same area code. These numbers are often used by businesses that want to increase credibility with a local number. For example, you can register a number in San Francisco that forwards to an office in New York. This is a useful alternative to a toll-free number, because many people prefer doing business with local companies. Simply register with a service provider to activate a ghost phone number.

Step 1

Use Toll Free Forwarding to register your ghost phone number (see Resources). The service offers local numbers for area codes in 700 cities spread between 79 countries. The rates vary depending on the destination number. For example, if you register a phone number in San Francisco that forwards to New York, it costs less than forwarding the same number to Madrid, Spain. The customer pays the local fees associated with the ghost number and you pay the per minute charge to Toll Free Forwarding. The service includes advanced tracking software that shows you the pertinent details of each call. These include caller ID, duration and geographical location wherever possible.

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Step 2

Use Localphone to activate a ghost number (see Resources). Localphone offers numbers from the area codes of major cities in 49 different countries. This service is designed to forward the ghost phone number to a regular phone, cell phone or to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) programs on computers. This flexibility allows you to travel anywhere in the world and still receive phone calls from your local number. Each client may own an unlimited amount of ghost phone numbers.

Step 3

Use Ring2Skype for your ghost phone number (see Resources). This service is completely free. The only requirement is that you download and install the free Skype VoIP software on your computer (see Resources). The service has limited local numbers available, so you may have to give a California number to friends in Kentucky, for example. Ring2Skype is limited to forwarding all calls made to the ghost number to your Skype account on a computer or Skype-enabled device.