Buying and selling
Selling online? Use a second phone number for buyers, marketplaces and classifieds
Buyers need to reach you, but not for ever. A second number handles the listing, the haggling and the collection, then switches off when the item is sold.
Selling a bike, a sofa or a box of baby clothes online means talking to strangers. Most are lovely. A few will message you at 1 am, call from withheld numbers, or try a payment scam that starts with "can I have your number?" And every one of them, plus any bot reading the listing, now has the phone number you use for everything.
A second number is the simplest fix. Put it on the listing, and your real number never enters the transaction.
The problem with your real number on a listing
It is public. Anyone browsing the listing can see it or ask for it, and listing pages are scraped.
It lingers. Long after the sofa has gone, the number is in buyers' phones and in whatever lists it was added to.
It has no off switch. You cannot stop your main number ringing without stopping everyone.
How a second number changes the transaction
Second Phone gives you a local or mobile number in your country that lives in an app. Put that number on the listing.
Messages arrive in one place. Buyers' texts land on the Messages tab under that number, separate from your personal conversations, with photos of the item going back and forth as MMS. See Start a conversation and send a message.
Calls ring in the app. Answer them, decline them, or tap Respond with SMS to send "Yes, still available, collection Saturday" without picking up.
Voicemail takes the rest. Switch on voicemail for the number and set business hours, say 9 am to 8 pm, and everything outside that goes to voicemail with a greeting you type yourself. See Set up voicemail and business hours.
The number switches off when you do. Sold everything? Swipe left on the number card and deactivate it. Selling again in the spring? Reactivate it. Want a clean slate? Delete it and get another.
A number per purpose
Some people keep a permanent "selling number" for years. Others take a short-term number for a house move or a big clear-out, since extra numbers can be bought for a week, a month, three months or a year and paid with coins. Either way, the number you sell from is never the number your bank calls.
Spotting the scams a second number cannot stop
A second number protects your identity; it does not vet buyers. The classic marketplace scams still apply: the buyer who "accidentally" overpays and asks for a refund, the courier who needs a fee, the payment link in a text. Deal in person or through the marketplace's own payment system, and treat any message that moves the conversation off the platform and towards a link with suspicion. Your second number makes those messages easy to ignore and easy to leave behind.
Frequently asked questions
Can buyers tell it is not my main number?
No. It is a normal local or mobile number that rings and texts like any other. Nothing about it says "app".
Do I pay to receive buyers' messages?
Receiving SMS is free on Second Phone. Sending texts and making calls from an extra number use coins; the in-app Pricing calculator shows the rates. Your primary number's calls and texts are covered by the subscription.
What if a buyer keeps calling after the sale?
Deactivate the number, or delete it and get another. Your personal number was never involved, so there is nothing to change anywhere else.