You may have experienced it before. The phone rings, you pick up, and the connection is immediately cut. You then see that the call came from a strange phone number, such as 101 or 1001. This is called ghostcalling. Ghostcalling literally translates to a ghost call. It sounds scary, but is it actually dangerous or just annoying?

What exactly is ghostcalling?

When making calls over the internet, the phone traffic does not go through the traditional phone line but through your internet connection. This means there is also a connection to your router. Through your router, data is constantly being sent to and from the internet.

In theory, data packets can also be sent through the phone port. After all, this also runs through your router. When this happens, a data packet is sent to your phone, causing it to ring with a strange phone number displayed, such as 101 or 1001. If you pick up, the connection is immediately cut. A kind of ghost call, which explains the name ghostcalling.

Is ghostcalling dangerous?

Ghostcalling is not directly dangerous. It can happen accidentally. However, it is also possible for someone to intentionally connect to your phone through your router. This could, for example, be a hacker. It is impossible for you to tell whether the ghost call is a random occurrence or a sign of a hacker at work. Although rare, such a hacker could even make calls on your behalf to other phone numbers, including expensive international numbers.

Can ghostcalling be prevented?

To eliminate all danger and because it is simply annoying, you naturally want to stop these ghost calls as soon as possible. But is that possible? It probably is, but it requires various technical adjustments to your firewall. And with manual adjustments to your firewall, you need to work carefully, as you could unintentionally open the door to malicious individuals.

No more ghostcalling with Belfabriek

When incoming calls do not go directly through your router to your phone but through Belfabriek’s cloud service, ghostcalling is no longer possible. Your phone number is in the safe hands of Belfabriek, hosted in the cloud. Incoming calls are forwarded directly but go through Belfabriek’s cloud. This makes it impossible for a hacker to directly access a phone through your router.

If you are experiencing ghostcalling with your current provider, you can always contact Belfabriek. Your number can then be ported to Belfabriek’s cloud, which will immediately put an end to the ghost calls and ensure your phone is no longer accessible to malicious individuals.