How to Create an Untracked Messaging Device With an Old Phone

Secret anonymous messages aren’t just for dastardly people. Luckily, a little privacy isn’t hard to get. With some effort and a spare phone, you can report abuse, protect your privacy from attackers, and remain anonymous when selling on Craigslist or looking for dates on Match. Here’s how.

This post is part of our Evil Week series on Lifehacker where we take a look at the dark side of goal achievement. Sometimes evil is justified, and sometimes knowing evil means knowing how to defeat it. I want more? Visit our wicked week tags page .

Right; we create a “ghost phone”. A device that you can use to create a phone number and send completely anonymous texts. Our “ghost phone” works best over Wi-Fi, preferably not over your Wi-Fi so you won’t be tracked. There are also ways to use cellular data here, especially with a VPN (which we’ll talk about later), but if you want to avoid being tracked, Wi-Fi is the way to go .

Of course, when we talk about who needs something like this, the people that probably come to mind are probably not very nice. However, remember that not everyone who has something important is willing to say it publicly .

Whistleblowers and activists are good and honorable examples of people whose privacy we want to protect, but it is also convenient in everyday life. Think about how convenient it would be to have a ghost phone to sell things on Craigslist. Or maybe you’d rather use your ghost phone to check your dates online. Maybe you just want to prank your friends. Maybe you are an activist, recording street harassment, violence or protests and want to get your information public as soon as possible, but without an immediate traceability. If any of them are like you, this is a worthwhile project.

What do you need

Before we get started, you need a few things:

• Old or spare smartphone (iOS or Android). You could do this with your regular everyday phone, but the goal here is to make it as untraceable as possible, and your real phone carries and passes a ton of data about you, where you go and what you do. The important thing here is the disposal of the old device, which does nothing but acts like a ghost phone. Plus, in the worst case, you can always wipe it off or throw it away, no harm, no foul.
• Hush is an app that can generate disposable numbers for calls and text messages and then send texts over Wi-Fi because of that number.
• Free VPN without login like Cyberghost or Hideman to encrypt your texts and anonymize your location (especially useful if you’re stuck using your own Wi-Fi).
• Good Wi-Fi connection or somewhat – you don’t want to use your own Wi-Fi network unless you want to be tracked down. Instead, opt for free Wi-Fi at a cafe or library and make sure you only use it when your VPN is turned on and connected.

We recommend Hush here, but the alternative is the other app we looked at , Burner . However, it doesn’t have the same free trial or pay-as-you-go plans. It is intended for people who are more concerned with maintaining these nonce than maintaining complete anonymity. Google Voice is another option, but then you need to use a Google account (pretty much the opposite of “untracked” even if you are using a dummy account as you will need to reuse it) and you only get one number to call or text from. It’s free, though, and it’s nice. If you’re going to be doing this a lot of times, perhaps explore alternatives, but if you’re most concerned about disposability and anonymity, stick with Hushing.

Also, when it comes to free VPNs, keep in mind that both of the services we recommend here reserve their best, fastest, and most reliable VPNs for paid customers, which means you could get disconnects, delays or delays. in the message. shipping and so on. When I set it up myself, I got really lucky with CyberGhost for a while, and then the connection dropped, so it was great to switch to HIdeman and vice versa. If you’re willing to invest, CyberGhost and Hideman let you pay with Bitcoin, so you can get more time and better connectivity options without leaving a paper trail that someone might find.

That sounds good? Here’s how you set it up.

How to install and configure Hushing

We recommend Hushing for your anonymous disposable phone number. You can choose from over 40 countries and they have a great free trial: you get 10 free text messages and 10 minutes of calls from your first disposable number. Your free trial number must be in North America, but for as little as $ 2, you can reserve a number in any of these 40 countries for a week and get 60 text messages to send. $ 4 allows you to store the number for a month and gives 150 messages. There’s even a pay-as-you-go option, so you only pay for the texts you actually send with your ghost phone.

Installing Hushing is as easy as getting it from Google Play or the iTunes App Store. If you really want to make sure you are as anonymous as possible, create a bogus email address or Google account for use on Google Play or iTunes by simply installing the app. You can also use the previously mentioned APK Downloader to get the installer package and download it to your Android phone. There are ways to download unpublished apps to an iOS device , but they pose more problems than they are worth – just use a fictitious Apple ID.

From there, the setup is straightforward. Hush uses the email and password you create after installation, but they don’t verify email addresses. They don’t even have a record of whether the address is real or not. This means that you can even use a fake account if you want (or use that fake account we mentioned earlier) and any password you like. Just remember this email and password so you can use the app again if you ever log out. You are now ready to send completely confidential anonymous messages.

Tap the menu icon on the left side of the screen to slide the sidebar. From there, you can hit your trial number to send a couple of text messages to unsuspecting testers – or just get your anonymous messages out of the way. Hhed supports text and picture messaging as well as Wi-Fi voice calling. If you would like to renew or get a new number in your current account, simply click the appropriate button at the bottom of the left sidebar (“get a number” or “get credits”) to do so, but as we mentioned, you will need to pay through an in-app purchase on Google Play or iTunes and this will make you traceable (unless you buy gift cards with bitcoin and use that bogus email address we mentioned!)

Protect your anonymous calls and text messages with a mobile VPN

By default, calls or text messages are not encrypted, which means they are sent in clear text where anyone can intercept, read, or use to contact whoever sent them and where they were sent from. This is where a good mobile VPN comes in handy . If, for some reason, someone intercepts your communication, you will appear as if you are at the location of the VPN server and not at the actual IP address of your Wi-Fi network that you are actually using. , for example, in a library or a cafe on the block.

Both CyberGhost and Hideman add a convenient encryption shell to all data leaving your ghost phone. Also, since the target here is largely untraceable, both VPNs offer a VPN server for you to choose from in multiple countries. They also don’t need an account to use, which is ideal.

1. First, install your preferred VPN from iTunes or Google Play. As we mentioned earlier, either option will work, but it’s a good idea to have a backup in case one of them lags or crashes.
2. Choose a place to connect. Neighboring servers will provide greater speed and reliability, but will make it easier to determine where you really are. On remote servers, you will be harder to track down, but your connection will suffer.
3. After choosing one, click “Connect”. You will be prompted to allow the VPN to monitor all your network traffic (which is required for it to work, so click Trust or Accept, whichever you are prompted to say. Now sit down, it may take a while, depending on your network traffic or popularity of this server.
4. Once you’re connected, head back to Hushing and start sending your messages. Everything you say now is encrypted, which means that it is hidden not only from prying eyes on whatever Wi-Fi network you use, but also between you and your recipient (or at least until then, until it goes through your VPN, which is all that matters!)

Understand the limitations of this project

Your ghost phone is now ready: your connection is encrypted and anonymous, and you send text and picture messages from a recorder phone number that is not personally associated with you. However, your phone has limitations that you should be aware of. For instance:

• This will not protect you from knowingly strong opponents . Make no mistake, good encryption, VPN, recorder number and disposable secondary will definitely make you difficult. However, real investigative agencies have the tools and capabilities to dive deeper than you can protect against them. They may also ask these services for information that may not reveal your messages or the device you are using, but other useful data, such as your internet service provider, what Wi-Fi network you are using, even if it is not yours, when you log in and all that. one of those other little tidbits that allow you to give away who you really are without anyone actually hacking anything. In short, don’t be a fool.
• Depositing money and using live accounts allows you to track your activities . We touched on this before, but every time you spend money or sign in with your real account on Google Play or iTunes, you leave behind breadcrumbs that make it easy to spot. This is why Google Voice is a bad idea for this particular use case. I’m not saying this because I think the friend you’re about to prank will sue Google or Apple, but you don’t think these little things will not betray you either. Should you open your wallet and use a credit or debit card to buy a Hushing number or get a Hideman premium account? You can bet that even if Hushing or Hideman doesn’t store this data, your bank will keep it and pass it on to the right people. You can use bitcoin, but you have to buy bitcoin somehow, right? Same problem.

As we said, this is great for when you need to hide yourself or your messages, quickly convey something important to a third party, protect your privacy from those who are technically competent, or just have a little fun with a friend who is well versed. In sports. This is perfect if you don’t want this other person to sign up for some lousy ephemeral messaging app that promises “safe, self-destructing texts” and doesn’t provide anything like that.

Even so, you are not going to outsmart someone with more network security experience than you, and you are definitely not going to outsmart a talented investigator with a background in social engineering. As always, use your evil powers for good – or at least wisely.

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