Tuesday 2nd August 2011 - Published by Lara Page - Account Manager
End of the Line for Nuisance Callers
Business owners working from home have been given a new weapon to put a stop to invasive and distressing nuisance calls.
Entrepreneurs Sunny Rai and Kam Thind, recently unveiled Number Cloak, a free service, which provides a secondary, temporary phone number that diverts to the business owner’s real phone, but keeps their real number hidden.
Once the business relationship has been established, the business owner may then choose to safely give out their real number.
The aim of the initiative was to help small business owners and entrepreneurs that work from home, who are concerned about handing out their personal telephone number to potential clients before a business relationship has been established.
Graham Rogers, who works from home, said: “As a new business, I was looking for a number that did not show my location and made me look more professional, but I was on a very tight budget. I really recommend businesses on a tight budget to use Number Cloak.”
Handing out a personal number can open the door to abuse from nuisance callers, who are not actually interested in the business’ products or services, whilst home telephone numbers can provide fraudsters with enough information to find out addresses and other details.
Further problems arise where phone numbers are sold to telemarketing and cold-calling companies, resulting in unwanted calls that, as well as being a nuisance to the business owner, also exposes their family to these calls in their home environment.
If unwanted calls become a cause for concern, the temporary number can be disconnected via the Number Cloak website, and a new number allocated within seconds, putting an end to the problem.
“Our aim is for Number Cloak to be a commonly owned and used asset in everyday life, when the situation is appropriate. We envision that one day, everybody will have a permanent or ever-changing secondary number in his or her phone book, saved as Number Cloak”, explains Mr Rai.
Users need only provide an email address and their real mobile or landline number, to enable their new, secondary number to be diverted.
There is no billing or charge for receiving calls to a Number Cloak; the service is funded entirely by callers, who are charged 50p per minute from a BT landline, whilst other networks vary.
To find out more, or to set up a Number Cloak, visit: www.numbercloak.com
Keep Your Number Safe When Working from Home - a pr2go story
