How can you tell if a number is a burner phone

[theyhavenothingbuttheaudacity]

Any ideas?

What do you think a burner phone is OP?

My understanding is it's just a phone, any phone, any number, that a person only uses for certain calls and nothing else. The phone number doesn't have anything to do with it. I think.

You can’t - it’s just a phone you plan to ditch.

That word is mad
It’s just a PAYG phone

A burner phone is just a cheap pay as you go phone, the kind of thing you pick up for £30 from the supermarket. Or even just a pay as you go SIM card that you put into your fancy expensive handset.

There would be no way of knowing from the phone number.

You can’t tell by the number, a burner phone is just a cheap phone drug dealers and cheats buy and get rid of, normally along with a payg sim.

Can't tell. If you're so minded you can pay and look up the carrier. If someone is giving you this much reason to doubt them then it is time to say sayonara anyway.

Your OWN phone? What?

@A580Hojas

What do you think a burner phone is OP?

My understanding is it's just a phone, any phone, any number, that a person only uses for certain calls and nothing else. The phone number doesn't have anything to do with it. I think.

As in not their day to day phone

Ah. A married man.

Probably. Or some other form of scammer.

No idea if married but odd for sure

For instance one weekend he said he would be out of touch for the weekend as he was getting a new phone from work so I said okay well surely you can use your own phone to message me? And he said oh I don't have a separate one I used to have a personal and work one but was too much hassle. Then he came back with this 'new phone' (we'd always communicated by dating app before) and I gave him my number and he messaged me on WhatsApp. His WhatsApp said he had literally joined that day. It's making my spidey senses a bit tingly is all

Steve, mate is that you?

@Unforgettablefire

You can’t tell by the number, a burner phone is just a cheap phone drug dealers and cheats buy and get rid of, normally along with a payg sim.

Or just a cheap phone for those of us who don't want/need a smart phone and a contract. Or kids, who can phone and text but not get internet access. I mean, supermarkets sell them, obviously their primary target market is drug dealers and cheating married folk.

As far as I’m aware He would only have had to join WhatsApp again if he’s using a totally different phone number to what he’s always used— or if he hasn’t used WhatsApp before- I would have thought it unlikely someone would have a new phone - but not port across their previous sim card and phone number. Just my twopennorth.

@theyhavenothingbuttheaudacity
Your whatsapp is usually connected to your phone number.
Maybe he’s just got a new phone along with a new SIM card, meaning he will have a new whatsapp from what he previously used.
Possible that he couldn’t yet access calls and messages and decided to use WhatsApp for the first time as you only need wi-fi
I don’t feel anything strange is going on other than numbers haven’t already been exchanged (sorry I’m just assuming because you said “one weekend” that this is someone you’ve already met/talked to for multiple weeks at least)

He's so married. Or a catfish. Be prudent

You can't OP - end of

Did he ever give you the old number OP?? If so Add it to your contacts and see if last seen comes up on WhatsApp - if not I can tell you another way to check if it’s still active— but will cost you £9.99 and you need an android phone (doesn’t matter if theirs is android or Apple)

'burner' phone is very American Hollywood. PAYG mobiles are convenient for people in the crime world, because they can just ditch the SIM card & pick another one up from a supermarket.

You can't

The only people who can tell a "burner" phone are the people on Hunted on Channel 4.

And can we please ban the ridiculous "spidey senses"?

So he'd been using a dating app on his work phone? That's not very smart.

And then someone (possibly him but possibly not) gave you a 'new' number, but as you never had the old number you've no idea if it's actually a new number at all. And now you've moved off the app and on to WhatsApp. Do you know if you're even communicating with the same person as before?

It all sounds a bit scammery to me.

If you’re buying a cheap phone to use and keep it’s not a burner phone. Burner phones are bought for secrecy for a short time and either burned or destroyed.

Watch every episode of The Wire.

Have you met him OP??