Seeing Unknown Caller appear when your phone rings can be a bit unsettling. Most of us are never quite sure whether to take a chance and answer these calls or send them off to our voicemail.

Contents What does Unknown Caller mean?Can you find out who an Unknown Caller is? After all, you never know if the person on the other end is a telemarketer or if its a robocall, a work colleague, or a friend or family member calling from an unusual place.

While we cant offer you any advice on what to do with these unknown calls youll have to make that call yourself we can help you understand exactly what it means when your phone shows Unknown Caller and hopefully put your mind a bit more at ease.

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　　What does Unknown Caller mean?

Unlike No Caller ID or Private Number,the term Unknown Caller typically means precisely what it says: your phone has no idea whos calling.

Assuming your phone service includes Caller ID, this lack of knowledge likely extends beyond your phone to your telecom provider, whether thats a mobile carrier or a traditional landline company. In short, your phone isnt provided with information about the caller because it isnt available.

Unfortunately, there can be several reasons for this. It could simply be a network error or a glitch somewhere along the path. Sometimes, the caller ID information gets lost in transit the way a return address label might fall off an envelope in the mail.

More often, its a compatibility problem between different telecommunications networks. For example, someone calling you from a VoIP app may not provide proper caller ID information or any caller ID information at all. Professional, business-grade VoIP services typically require their customers to send caller ID, but many smaller ones dont.

Calls coming in from overseas (outside of North America) can also be problematic since not all foreign telephone networks present caller ID in a way that your carrier expects to receive them. Some carriers will strip out what they consider invalid caller ID information rather than present you with a useless string of numbers.

　　Can you find out who an Unknown Caller is?

Most of the time, you wont be able to easily identify an unknown caller. As we described above, this message usually means the caller ID information isnt there, and you cant find whats not there.

However, just because your phone is missing the caller ID information doesnt mean your carrier doesnt know where the call came from. In addition to the caller ID information thats designed to be shown on your phones display, telecom networks also pass originating numbers around using a technique known as automatic number identification (ANI).

ANI is used internally between networks for tracking and billing purposes; its not typically available to end users. It can also be different from the caller ID. For example, in a business with multiple lines, the ANI will be the actual line the call came from, while the caller ID may be a generic customer service number or a direct number to an employees desk.

While your carrier is unlikely to provide you with these details if you simply ask for them, but you can involve law enforcement if youre being seriously harassed by someone from an unknown number, as they can request whatever information your carrier has available through the investigative and legal channels available to them.

Depending on your telecom provider, you may also be able to call back an unknown caller using a feature commonly known as last call return. While this is rarely available on mobile phones, most North American landline providers allow you to dial *69 to call back the last call received.

In most cases, this works even when caller ID has been deliberately blocked; it wont tell you the number, but it will call it back. Its more of a long shot when dealing with unknown callers, but its worth a try. Just keep in mind that you wont find much out unless someone answers that return call.

Dozens of apps on the Play Store and App Store claim they can help you find out who unknown callers are. Dont waste your time with these in this scenario, as none can help you find the phone number of an Unknown Caller. That information is simply not available, and theres no magical way for them to get at it at least not without illegally hacking into your carriers network.

Instead, most of the more reputable apps that claim to identify unknown numbers are talking about matching names to calls from unrecognized numbers that show up on your caller ID. Some of those apps work pretty well by using online databases and reverse number searches;. However, you can often get some clues on your own by searching out those numbers on Google.

Lastly, apps like TrapCall can help identify unknown callers but only if you set them up to intercept those calls in advance. These services route declined calls through their own phone networks so they can read the ANI even when the caller ID isnt available. With monthly subscription fees and some potential privacy issues theyre probably not worth it merely to satisfy your curiosity, but they can be helpful if somebody is pestering you. TrapCall works very well with blocked calls (No Caller ID or Private Number), but it can be hit-or-miss with unknowns (Unknown Caller) as there may not be any caller information for it to capture.