Burner Phone Number: A Second Number Without a Second Phone

The old burner phone and the new burner number

'Burner' was originally slang for an expendable, cash-only prepaid phone used for a short while and then dumped. From 2002 to 2008, The Wire popularised the term. Because it was used without a name attached, there was no name to trace. That variant remains available in the UK, where a pay-as-you-go SIM can be purchased without a passport or driver's licence. Germany put an end to that in July 2017, when ID became necessary for all prepay SIMs.

A burner number is a beast of a different colour. A second number, delivered by an app, that calls and texts on the handset in your pocket. No plastic card, no store visit. You can dispose of it without recourse to your main number or your SIM and your bank and your two-factor authentication credentials just keep on arriving at the good old number. SIM registration, which applies to many countries in Africa and Asia, is another reason for the default app approach.

What a second number actually does

Long after the sofa has been sold, there are still calls and text messages arriving for the seller. And as soon as your number is published on a public advert, it'll be scraped by spammers within days. With an expendable second number in the advert, the inbound traffic leaves with it. Your regular number is never visible in the advert at all.

The same goes for a first date. An individual's name, address and more are linked to their phone number on people-search and data brokerage sites, so revealing your real number reveals a good deal more than you expected. A single-use apartment rental works the same way. The landlord needs a number for your stay, not forever after.

The same applies to a short-term contract, a season or a month working on a site, with an agency or with colleagues. They may be able to contact you if necessary, but have no reason to keep calling you after the contract ends. With a disposable number, you'll never have to tell anyone you changed your number.

What it does not hide

A burner number is private from others you share it with. It's not private from the provider. The provider owns account records and payment records, and in the UK the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 provides a way for authorities to demand communications data from providers. Anyone claiming a virtual number makes you untraceable is, in fact, selling you a second product.

The cash SIM was never the curtain that TV implied. Sure, it took away all the pain of the till, but that's a much lower bar than wiping away a person's presence entirely. What you get when you buy a second number is a degree of separation from strangers. And that's worth having.

Verification codes and recycled digits

Certain banks and apps reject numbers they identify as VoIP/ virtual for a verification code, while many others accept them.

This is impossible to double-check before you rely on it, so try your number on the service that is the most critical for you first, keep your number in reserve. Numbers also get recycled: a disconnected number returns to the pool and is handed to a new customer, which is why the FCC launched the Reassigned Numbers Database in November 2021 to allow businesses to search to see if a number has been reassigned. A new number assigned to you could come bundled with someone else's prior subscription. A number you give up could be reassigned to an unknown person.

Getting a number on the handset you already carry

Numbers adhere to the ITU E.164 format, a country code plus the national number, and always capped at 15 digits. UK mobiles start +44 7. US numbers start +1 plus a three-digit area code. Buying a temporary phone number is no longer a process of buying new numbers from the phone shop, it takes minutes and the number is a piece of software, not a plastic card.

MoreMins offer numbers for 50+ countries, starting at $0.99 and going to $26.99 per month depending on country. Purchase in the e-shop and the number appears in your Android or iPhone app. It uses the internet to make it work anywhere so there is no roaming cost, and there's no contract to stick to - just cancel it when the task is complete.