Selling a couch on Gumtree, confirming a pickup with a tradie, or messaging a landlord about a rental inspection in Australia usually starts the same way: someone asks you to "just text me". Most people hand over their personal mobile without thinking, and that number then lives in a stranger's contacts, their messaging apps, and sometimes a scraped list for years.
Here are a few habits that keep your real number out of one-off conversations.
1. Decide which messages actually need a reply
A lot of texts are one-way: "I'm outside", "The item is still available", "Running ten minutes late", "Your parcel is at the front desk". For those you don't need a back-and-forth channel at all, just a way to get the message delivered. That's the gap a send-only tool fills.
If you do need replies, a send-only app isn't the right fit, and a proper second-number service or a marketplace's own in-app chat is the better choice.
2. Keep the first message short and complete
When you can't rely on a reply thread, put everything in the first text: who you are ("the seller of the blue couch"), the detail they need (time, address, price), and how they can follow up (the listing's chat, an email, or the platform you met on). Australian numbers are written +61 followed by the number without the leading 0, so 0412 345 678 becomes +61 412 345 678.
3. Watch out for anything that asks you to "verify"
Scammers on Australian marketplaces love the fake "verification code" trick, where they ask you to read back a code that was texted to you. Never share a code, and never move a sale off-platform because someone insists.
4. Use a sender that doesn't show your mobile
Ghost is an Android app that sends an SMS without showing your real number to the person receiving it. It's send-only: it doesn't give you a virtual number, it can't receive texts or OTP codes, and there's no reply link. It's free to download and you buy credits in the app when you need to send, so you only pay for the messages you actually send. Their page on sending an anonymous SMS to Australia covers number formatting and delivery for Australian mobiles, and the pricing page for affordable SMS credits shows what a message costs without a subscription.
There's no iPhone version, so this only works if you're on Android.
5. Use it for the right reasons
Hiding your number is about privacy, not about hiding from accountability. Don't use any anonymous sender to harass, threaten, or impersonate someone; Australian law covers menacing and offensive use of a carriage service no matter what app you use.
Keeping your personal mobile for the people who already know you is a small habit, and it saves a lot of unwanted calls later.