What Is A Trap Phone?
According to GSMA statistics, there are 6.2 billion smartphone connections worldwide in 2021, and this number will become 7.5 billion by 2025. It's also common for many of these people to use two or more phones. They use one mobile phone for normal social activities, while the other phone is used for more private activities, so as not to leave traces and be easily found by others. And this kind of mobile phone can actually be called a trap phone.
In this article, we will introduce to you in detail what is a trap phone, who needs to use a trap phone, and how to get a trap phone. Now let's get started.
Contents
1. What Is A Trap Phone
A trap phone is a slang for a mobile phone used for a specific purpose, often associated with private or even criminal activity. Trap phones are usually prepaid phones purchased with cash to avoid being traced or identified.
Criminals often use trap phones to get in touch with other members of their organization, plan illegal activities, or conduct illicit transactions. The trap phones are also used by individuals who want to keep their phone usage private, or who want to avoid being followed or monitored by others.
Some trap phones are usually disposable and are often discarded or destroyed after a short period of use. This helps prevent people from tracking the phone or tracking its usage. Trap phones are illegal in some jurisdictions and using them can be considered a crime.
2. Who Need to Use A Trap Phone?
As we mentioned above, trap phones are mainly used to keep phone usage secret or to avoid being followed or spied on by others. Therefore, trap phones are often used by people who want to keep their phone usage private or avoid being tracked or monitored. The following groups of people usually use trap phones:
- People who value privacy: Some people may use trap phones to avoid being followed or spied on by others, such as employers, partners, or government agencies.
- People who want to avoid being advertised: Some people may use trap phones to avoid being tracked by marketing companies. Marketing companies (such as Taboola) usually use various big data such as phone numbers and Internet records to build consumer profiles and target them with advertisements.
- Criminals: It's easy to imagine that criminals always use trap phones to contact with other members of their organization in order to plan illegal activities, or conduct illegal transactions. They use trap phones to avoid being tracked or identified by police or other law enforcement.
- Spouses or family members: In order to avoid being monitored or followed by each other, some discordant spouses or family members will also use another mobile phone (a trap phone) to engage in their private activities. There may be unethical behavior such as cheating.
Recommended reading: How to Remove Taboola Feed from Your Phone?
Overall, trap phones are an option for anyone who wants to keep their smartphone use private or avoid being tracked or monitored. But you do need to be aware that the use of trap phones is illegal in some regions or countries and can be considered a crime. So in order not to get in trouble, you need to use a trap phone carefully.
3. How Does A Trap Phone Work?
Trap phones work by allowing the user to use the phone without being traced or identified, so they must go through some special processing or use some specific methods, ordinary mobile phones will definitely not work. This is typically done in the following ways:
- A prepaid phone: A trap phone is typically a prepaid phone, which is purchased using cash instead of credit cards or other online payment methods, only in this way can make it difficult to identify the owner.
- Block caller ID: When received a phone call, we can easily see the caller's phone number. But it can't happen with a trap phone. Trap phones are often set up to block caller ID, which means that the person receiving the call will not be able to see the caller's phone number.
- Hiding IP address: Trap phones will use VPN or other methods to hide its own IP address, so that it will not reveal its own IP address when connecting to the Internet or sending requests, which makes it hard to be identified.
- Disposing of the phone: If a mobile phone is used for a long time, even the trap phone can be easily monitored. So trap phones are often disposable and are discarded or destroyed after a short period of use. This helps to prevent police or other law enforcement from tracking the phone or tracing its use.
4. How to Get A Trap Phone?
First of all, we need to emphasize that in many regions and countries, buying and selling trap phones is illegal, and using a trap phone may be considered a crime. Therefore, you must know the local laws and regulations before getting a trap phone.
If you still want to use a trap phone to protect your privacy, try the following:
- Find a prepaid phone provider: Some providers may sell prepaid phones that don't require ID or a credit card, which may be suitable for getting a trap phone. However, selling or buying a prepaid phone from this kind of provider may be illegal in some areas.
- Use the Internet: Some online stores, such as eBay or Craigslist, may have options for prepaid phones that can be purchased without credit card or online payments. However, you should be noted that when buying a phone this way, there is a risk of buying a stolen or counterfeit phone.
- Use a "burner" phone app: You can find some mobile apps that allow you to create a "burner" phone number that can be used for a limited time. This can be a more secure alternative to a trap phone because the phone number can be easily removed when you don't need to use it anymore.
5. How to Protect Your Phone from Being Tracked?
If you don't want to use a trap phone, in turn, you just worry about your own phone being tracked by others. What should you do? Is there a good way to prevent it? Don't worry, you can follow our detailed tutorial to make your phone impossible to track.
Recommended reading: How to Make Your Phone Impossible to Track?
Summary
Now you should understand what a trap phone is. But in principle, we still need to remind you that unless you start from the perspective of protecting personal privacy, it is not recommended to use a trap phone, because it has the possibility of breaking the law and may even be regarded as a crime. You can choose other safer alternatives that can provide similar functionality without legal risk.
