Send an anonymous text to a Dutch mobile

What a text to the Netherlands costs

One SMS segment to a Dutch mobile costs 2 credits ($0.40). A segment holds 160 characters of plain text, and texts to the Netherlands start with “GHOST:”, which counts toward that. é, è, ö and ü are in the basic SMS alphabet, so één and café cost nothing extra. The trema letters ë and ï, as in ideeën, België and geïnteresseerd, are not, and neither is the curly apostrophe in ’s avonds or zo’n: any of them switches the whole text to 70-character segments. The € sign is in the basic alphabet but counts as two characters.

Counts include the “GHOST: ” prefix these texts start with. Rates checked October 22, 2026. Rates for every country

How to type a Dutch mobile number

1. Open Ghost in your browser or the Android app.
2. Choose Netherlands (+31) in the country list and type the mobile number.
3. Write your text, check the credits shown under it, and send.

Choose Netherlands, then type the number without the 0 at the front, so a number written 06 … (often 06-…) starts with 6 in Ghost. Dutch mobile numbers start with 06 and have 10 digits written locally. Numbers starting 097 are for machines such as car navigation systems and dongles, and 066 numbers are pagers, so neither is a phone you can text.

What the person in the Netherlands 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.
• Dutch government advice is never to click a link in a text you don’t trust and to report suspicious texts to the Fraudehelpdesk. Ghost texts cannot contain links at all, and saying who you are or why you are writing makes yours 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 in Dutch

Most texts in the Netherlands are in Dutch, and Frisian is an official language too in the province of Fryslân. Dutch accents are mostly free to send, with two exceptions: the trema and the curly apostrophe.

When people in the Netherlands keep their number private

Dutch law on anonymous texts

Sending a text without showing your number is not an offence in itself. What you send matters: systematically intruding on someone’s private life to frighten them or make them do something is stalking (belaging) under article 285b of the Wetboek van Strafrecht, which is prosecuted when the victim files a complaint. Threatening serious violence is an offence under article 285, insults under article 266, and spreading someone’s personal details to intimidate them (doxing) under article 285d. Unsolicited commercial texts need the recipient’s prior consent under article 11.7 of the Telecommunicatiewet.

Got a text you did not want?

If a text looks like phishing or a scam, report it to the Fraudehelpdesk, the national fraud helpdesk, with its online form or by calling 088-786 7372. If you lost money, you can report it to the police. Unwanted commercial texts can be reported to the ACM. To stop texts sent through Ghost, add your number on the stop page.

Questions and answers