Personal protection is more important than ever today. With identity theft, fraudsters, and intrusive telemarketers trying to get your personal information, it’s important to use security measures that protect your information and prevent you from being scammed. Most people think about protecting personal information like your phone number and home address, but if you run a business, you should also think about protecting your business information.

If you have a business where you use your mobile phone number as your primary contact, you should consider using call forwarding to protect your privacy. Since you don’t always know who will be calling your business line, it’s best to keep that number private or use a virtual number that is forwarded to your primary line. Since it is possible for people to locate an address from a blocked number, and if they have the resources, they can locate the owner of a mobile number, you can protect your personal and business information by forwarding your calls to your business line.

How call forwarding works

When using this feature, the provider will assign you a virtual number. Your real phone number will be linked to this virtual number. When a customer dials the virtual number, it will automatically ring through their phone. The virtual number cannot be traced back to you, so you can keep your information private.

You can attach the number to any phone, so you can receive calls on your mobile phone, at home or in the office. If you want business calls to ring at home while you work from home, call forwarding will redirect the call to your home, but the customer will never know you’re home. Your customers don’t realize they’re being connected to a different number when they call, as the transfer is seamless and looks like a normal phone call.

How you protect your privacy

With the advancement of online searches, people can now perform a reverse search. This allows someone to type in a phone number and receive the owner’s name and address. If the person is willing to pay a small fee, they can also receive more personal information about the owner of that phone number. This puts a lot of personal information at anyone’s fingertips, and when you run a business, you don’t necessarily want everyone to know about your personal business.

When you use a virtual number, a special number is assigned to you through a calling company. When a customer dials the number, they’re still connected to your regular phone, but you won’t appear as the owner of the virtual number. This means that all your personal information remains confidential. If a customer looks up your phone number and can locate personal information such as your address, they risk showing up at your home or business without warning. By using call forwarding, you don’t have to worry about unannounced visitors or people using your information unethically.