Why do people/organisations withold their CLI

[timwilky]

I have just been told the police are trying to contact me but cannot as my Asterisk exchange reject anonymous calls.

I have had a similar problem with my local hospital. Why do they have to withhold their ID when they have nothing to hide?

[Spiderman]

i beleive if they go thru some kind of a switchboard system it cant show a number, ir if they call you from extn 221 of 0207 111 1111 then it cant show that so it shows no number at all. I think thats the reason anyway.

[Viney]

Ours doesnt. However certian excahnges can show the main switchboard number. I suppose it stops people getting direct numbers of say, helpdesk operatives, so that they can not bypass the correct procedure.

[SoulKiss]

Spidey is mostly right.

Back in the mists of time, when I worked for an insurance company, I used to cover the switchboard while the operator was at lunch every few weeks.

The number of times that I would get calls looking to be put through to "whoever had just tried to call me" was high.

As most switchboards default to just showing the main number this means this generates more calls.

In the case of the police etc, it makes sense to not give out DDI numbers - it is all to common when these are given out that they are used instead of the correct numbers in all future attempts to get help - I have seen this in Helpdesk situations too.

[johnnyrod]

My mother does this. I always know it's her beacuse it says "witheld". Britain the home of irony!