# Three-digit phone number? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522 "2012-11-29T23:28:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522/1 "2012-11-29T23:28:20Z")
Yesterday afternoon I got a call on my cellphone. The caller was listed as three digits only. No name or anything. What’s going on with that? What is that? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522/2 "2012-11-29T23:36:09Z")
Probably just a caller ID spoof… maybe a telemarketer? ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522/3 "2012-11-29T23:37:13Z")
They can do that? Lame! ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522/4 "2012-11-29T23:39:11Z")
Sure. Anybody can do that through web-based spoofing services. > **[Caller ID spoofing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing)** > > Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. This can lead to a caller ID display showing a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was placed. > The term is commonly used to describe situations in which the motivation is considered malicious by the originator. > One effect of the widespread availability of Caller ID spoof... ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522/5 "2012-11-29T23:40:29Z")
If you have ongoing issues with random calls like that, ask about privacy protections from your phone company. Or get something like Google Voice and do the filtering yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522/6 "2012-11-30T03:03:49Z")
I called my phone company (AT&T) to ask about their privacy protection services. There are two services to choose from. Both have so many limitations as to be utterly useless for the purpose of limiting junk calls. The biggest limitation is that they can only block _local_ calls, not long-distance calls. So how many of your junk calls actually originate, like, in your own neighborhood? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-digit-phone-number/642522/7 "2012-11-30T03:33:34Z")
That’s why Google Voice is great. You can put unknown callers in a different group and send them straight to voicemail, or if you keep getting calls from a specific unwanted number, you can just mark it as spam and never hear from them again. It’s free too. Downside is that you’ll need to either port your number to them or else give everyone a new number. But been using it for years now and phone spam is no longer an issue at all.