How to legitimize phone number with organization?

March 12, 2018 1:31 PM

My wife is doing some volunteer work, and she would like to be able to make calls on her personal cell phone so that her ID shows her from the organization she is working with. It seems that there should be built-in protections against spoofing, but is there a way for her to do something like this legitimately to associate her with the organization she has been authorized to call from? The orgainization is out of state, and one step closer seems to be to get a google number in the same area code.
posted by SpacemanStix to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Does the Org have a Virtual PBX system as their phone system? She should ask someone technical at the organization, as virtual PBX systems are pretty transparent to most users. If so, there may be a software phone app for your wife's smartphone so it will make calls from an existing extension. Furthermore, people could reach your wife using that extension, either her coworkers or outside contacts. It'll probably mean some additional monthly cost to the Org, though.
posted by Sunburnt at 1:42 PM on March 12, 2018

There are certainly methods to spoof caller ID details. In this case, if she is calling on behalf of this organization, it might actually be most honest to spoof her personal number to accurately appear to be from the nonprofit.

For a more legitimate approach - you'll want to figure out to have her use a phone number that "belongs" to the nonprofit, and already appears accurately on caller ID. A few ideas:

- Use a SIM card on the organization's plan (if she has an unlocked phone or uses the same carrier)

- I was going to recommend Skype Out (where you can make Skype calls to landlines, "from" a number you control. However, it looks like that's no longer offered by Skype.

- Use a softphone app on her smartphone, and have a phone number provisioned by the organization. Definitely dependent on the phone system they use, and how flexible/savvy their technical team is.
posted by reeddavid at 1:49 PM on March 12, 2018

Sadly, there are no built-in protections against spoofing.
posted by rhizome at 2:04 PM on March 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

There are many VoIP providers out there that either will allow you to set any caller ID you like or at least let you set it to any number you prove to them you can receive calls on.

I happen to like Callcentric, though they are one of the latter. At one time voip.ms was in the former category.
posted by wierdo at 5:56 PM on March 12, 2018