Does *67 Work When Calling Internationally?

You dial *67 before an international number and expect your caller ID to be hidden. It doesn't work.

This is one of those things that seems like it should be straightforward — you've used *67 for years on domestic calls, so why wouldn't it work internationally?

The short answer: *67 is a North American carrier feature that only works within the traditional domestic phone network. It was never designed to work across international boundaries, and in practice, it almost never does.

Here's why.

What *67 actually does, technically

When you dial *67 before a number, your phone sends a signal to your local carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.) that says: "set the presentation indicator to 'restricted' for this call."

Your carrier receives this flag and tells the next switch in the chain: "don't show the caller's number to the recipient."

This works fine when the entire call stays within one carrier's network, or within the North American phone system (the NANP — North American Numbering Plan). Every switch in the chain speaks the same protocol and respects the same flags.

That's the key detail: it works because every piece of equipment between you and the recipient agrees on the rules.

Why it breaks on international calls

International calls don't stay within one system. Your call typically passes through:

Your local carrier — which receives the *67 flag
An international gateway — which routes the call out of the country
One or more transit carriers — which move the call between countries
The destination carrier — which delivers the call in the other country

Each of these carriers operates under different regulations, uses different equipment, and follows different standards for caller ID.

The "presentation restricted" flag that *67 sets on your local carrier is a signaling parameter in the SS7 protocol (or SIP, for newer networks). Whether that flag survives the entire international routing chain depends on every carrier along the way choosing to honor it.

In practice, most don't. Some international carriers strip the flag entirely. Others ignore it because their local regulations require caller ID to be shown. Some simply don't support the parameter in their signaling setup.

The result: your number may show up anyway, the call may display as "Unknown" (and get rejected), or the call might not even connect because some carriers block calls with incomplete caller ID information.

What about the phone's "Hide Caller ID" setting?

This is essentially the same mechanism as *67, just triggered through your phone's settings menu instead of a dial code. It sends the same "presentation restricted" flag to your carrier.

Same limitations apply. It works domestically (most of the time), fails internationally (most of the time).

What actually works for private international calls

If you want the person you're calling to not see your personal number, you need a fundamentally different approach: make the call from a different number entirely.

This is what VoIP services do. When you call through a VoIP provider, the call originates from the provider's phone infrastructure. The recipient sees the VoIP provider's outbound number — a real, valid phone number, just not yours.

This isn't a trick or a workaround. It's how VoIP routing works by default. Your personal number is never part of the call signaling because the call doesn't originate from your phone line.

With DialVia, for example, you dial the international number from your browser. The call goes out from a DialVia number. There's no flag to set, no code to remember, and no dependence on whether foreign carriers honor a "restricted" flag. Your number simply isn't there.

A few things to know

VoIP calls are more likely to be answered than calls showing "Private" or "Unknown." Many people and businesses abroad won't pick up a hidden number, but they will answer a call from a real number they don't recognize.
Your number privacy doesn't depend on carrier cooperation. With VoIP, the privacy is structural — your number isn't involved in the call, period. It doesn't matter what the destination carrier's policies are.
Some VoIP services let you optionally show your own number. If you want the recipient to see your personal number (for callbacks, for example), you can verify it and set it as your caller ID. But it's opt-in — not the default.
*67 can also fail on some domestic calls — especially to toll-free numbers and business lines that pay for caller ID as a feature. This isn't just an international problem.

The bottom line

*67 is a 1980s-era feature designed for the North American phone network. It works within that system, more or less. Outside of it, you're rolling the dice.

If you need reliable number privacy on international calls, using a VoIP service with its own outbound numbers is the only approach that consistently works — because it doesn't depend on every carrier in the chain agreeing to hide your number. Your number is simply never part of the call.

👉 Try DialVia — call from your browser in 30 seconds Or return to the DialVia homepage to learn more.