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A clever new service from the UK, Safe Talk allocates temporary phone numbers to customers who’d rather not give out their real number to just anyone. How it works: X meets Y, and wants to exchange phone numbers before dashing off into the night. Not entirely comfortable with handing over his/her phone number to a stranger, X sends a text message to 80876. X immediately receives a temporary, anonymous phone number from Safe Talk, which expires after a week. All calls to this number are automatically diverted to X’s real phone number. Cost of the procedure is GBP 1.50 for the text message to Safe Talk, plus a fee per minute charged to the caller. Anobel offers a similar service in The Netherlands, based on a module built by Voys, which can be used on any website, in any country. Opportunities extend beyond the dating scene: consumers advertising goods for sale online will also appreciate the ability to conceal their real phone numbers. One for online classifieds, marketplaces, dating sites and phone operators to start offering as an add-on?