Belgium · anonymous SMS
Send an anonymous text to a Belgian mobile
Ghost delivers your text to any mobile in Belgium without showing your number. A standard text costs 2 credits ($0.40), there is no subscription, and you can send it from a browser on any phone or computer. Belgians text in Dutch, French or German, and the accents in each decide what a text costs.
What a text to Belgium costs
One SMS segment to a Belgian mobile costs 2 credits ($0.40). A segment holds 160 characters of plain text, and texts to Belgium start with “GHOST:”, which counts toward that. é, è, à and ù, the German ä, ö, ü and ß, and the € sign, which counts as two characters, are all in the basic SMS alphabet. The Dutch trema letters ë and ï, as in België, the French ç, ê, â, î, ô, û and œ, and the curly apostrophe ’ are not: any one of them switches the whole text to 70-character segments.
| Text | Characters | Encoding | Segments | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A short message | 89 characters | GSM-7 | 1 segment | 2 credits ($0.40) |
| A longer message | 282 characters | GSM-7 | 2 segments | 4 credits ($0.80) |
| Dutch (Flemish), with é | 123 characters | GSM-7 | 1 segment | 2 credits ($0.40) |
| Dutch (Flemish), with ë | 91 characters | UCS-2 | 2 segments | 4 credits ($0.80) |
| French (Belgium) | 103 characters | UCS-2 | 2 segments | 4 credits ($0.80) |
Counts include the “GHOST: ” prefix these texts start with. Rates checked October 22, 2026. Rates for every country
How to type a Belgian mobile number
Written locally
04xx xx xx xx
Type in Ghost
+32 4xx xx xx xx
- Open Ghost in your browser or the Android app.
- Choose Belgium (+32) in the country list and type the mobile number.
- Write your text, check the credits shown under it, and send.
Choose Belgium, then type the number without the 0 at the front, so a number written 04… starts with 4 in Ghost. Belgian mobile numbers start with 045 to 049 and have 10 digits written locally. Numbers starting 042 or 043 are landlines in the Liège area even though they also begin with 04.
What the person in Belgium sees
- The text arrives as an ordinary SMS from a Ghost mobile number. Your own number is not shown anywhere in it.
- It starts with “GHOST:”, so they can tell it came through Ghost. Nothing in it says who you are unless you write it.
- Safeonweb, run by the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium, asks people to report suspicious texts by sending a screenshot to verdacht@safeonweb.be. Saying who you are or why you are writing makes your text easy to tell apart from phishing.
- Replying from their messages app does not reach you. If you want an answer, switch on a Reply Link: they open it in a browser and send you one reply, still without seeing your number.
- Anyone who would rather not get Ghost texts can block them on the stop page. Ghost will not send to a number on that list.
Writing a text for Belgium
Belgium’s Constitution sets out a Dutch-speaking region (Flanders), a French-speaking region (Wallonia), bilingual Brussels and a German-speaking region in the east. Most texts are in Dutch or French.
Dutch (Flemish), with é
Hallo, is het appartement in Gent nog vrij? Ik heb nog één vraag over de huurwaarborg. Kan ik zaterdag komen kijken?GSM-7, 123 characters, 1 segment: 2 credits ($0.40)
é is in the basic SMS alphabet, so één costs nothing extra and this text stays at 160 characters a segment.
Dutch (Flemish), with ë
Ik woon pas in België en zoek een kamer in Leuven. Is die van uw zoekertje nog vrij?UCS-2, 91 characters, 2 segments: 4 credits ($0.80)
Switched to UCS-2 by: ë
The ë in België is outside the basic alphabet, so this text is sent in 70-character segments and needs two. Written as Belgie, the same text fits in one.
French (Belgium)
Bonjour, j'ai bien reçu votre réponse pour l'appartement à Liège. Est-il toujours libre samedi ?UCS-2, 103 characters, 2 segments: 4 credits ($0.80)
Switched to UCS-2 by: ç
The è in Liège, the é and the à are all in the basic alphabet, but the lowercase ç in reçu is not, so this text is sent in 70-character segments and needs two. Without the ç it would fit in one.
When people in Belgium keep their number private
Buying and selling on 2dehands or 2ememain
Its owner Adevinta calls 2dehands, or 2ememain in French, the Belgian market leader in online classifieds, with around 3 million visitors a month. Text the seller through Ghost to agree a price and a pickup time, and give your own number only once you are happy to.
Renting a flat
Asking about a flat on Immoweb, which its managing director described in 2021 as the market leader, means writing to landlords you have never met. Ghost lets you ask about the rent, the deposit (huurwaarborg or garantie locative) or a viewing first, without handing out your mobile number.
A note to a neighbour
Letting a neighbour know a parcel for them was left with you is easier without starting a thread on your own phone. Keep it polite: Belgian law cares about harassing or threatening messages, not about the number being hidden.
Belgian law on anonymous texts
Sending a text without showing your number is not an offence in itself. Belgium’s new Criminal Code, in force since 1 September 2026, is what applies to the content: deliberately and seriously disturbing someone’s peace, even with a single act, is harassment (belaging, harcèlement) under article 237, with heavier penalties under article 238, and deliberately causing someone serious fear of an attack on them or their property, by any means, is a threat under article 231. Advertising by electronic mail, which includes SMS, needs the recipient’s prior consent under article XII.13 of the Code of Economic Law.
Got a text you did not want?
If a text looks like phishing or a scam, send a screenshot to verdacht@safeonweb.be (or suspect@safeonweb.be), the address of the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium. If you gave your bank or card details, call Fraudstop on 078 170 170 at once to block your cards and payment means. Crimes can be reported to the police. To stop texts sent through Ghost, add your number on the stop page.
Questions and answers
A text of up to 160 plain characters costs 2 credits ($0.40), including the “GHOST:” at the start. Longer texts are charged per segment, and an ë or ï, a French ç or circumflex, a curly apostrophe or an emoji shortens each segment to 70 characters. Ghost shows the cost before you send.
No. Choose Belgium and type the number without its first 0, so it starts with 4. Remember that 042 and 043 numbers are Liège landlines, not mobiles.
It depends on where the person lives: Dutch in Flanders, French in Wallonia, either in Brussels, and German in the east. In Dutch, é is free but ë and ï are not; in French, é, è and à are free but ç and the circumflex letters are not.
Hiding your number is not an offence in itself. Harassing or threatening someone by text is, under the Criminal Code that applies from 1 September 2026, whether or not your number shows.
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