Virtual Phone Numbers makes you secure

Maybe it was the overenthusiastic upstart you met at a trade show who's now hounding you for a job. Or the guy/gal at the bar who looked cute after three martinis. Whatever the scenario, there are undoubtedly times when you've regretted giving out your phone number.

Telecom startup Vumber is now offering a service that lets you dole out your digits with far less remorse. The company, which charges a $4.99 monthly fee, assigns you a virtual phone number that rings to any permanent phone number you choose.

"It protects your privacy," Vumber President Cliff Wener said. "It allows you to gain a second persona or number on your cell phone or your home phone."

Many Internet-based phone companies, such as Vonage, offer virtual numbers as an add-on to their services, but you may not be able to use it with, for example, your cell phone. There are also services — some free — like Tossable Digits, Google's GrandCentral and (the intentionally misspelled) numbr, that give you disposable digits that forward to a permanent phone you choose, but you generally can't use them for outbound calls directly from your phone.

But with Vumber, you can disguise your private numbers when you dial. You have to first register the permanent number from which you're calling in your account on the company's Web site. After that, you dial your Vumber number, then follow voice prompts and dial away. The service is "as close as you can get to a second line" but cheaper, Wener said.

The base fee allows you to change your Vumber number up to three times monthly. It's $1.99 per change after that. Additional Vumber numbers are $1.95 a month. You can determine how incoming calls are treated, such as being sent straight to voicemail or told your number is disconnected. Wener promised users will soon be able to set up a schedule so calls will be treated a certain way between certain hours, such as sending all calls to voicemail at dinnertime. Each Vumber number has its own voicemail, allowing users to keep private or pesky messages separate from ones on their regular phone.

Since Vumber users get to pick an area code from most of the country, Wener hopes small business owners will see the service as a way to project a local presence. For customers, "there's a certain ease if you think you're dealing with someone local," he said.

An added bonus of being able to pick your area code is that you can choose one where you have lots of friends and relatives. That way, if your grandmother in Iowa doesn't have unlimited long distance service, she can call the Vumber number you've set up with a 563 area code, and she'll be billed as if it were a local call.