Hacker News Reader

Comment by canada_dry | Hacker News Reader

This is a readily solvable problem i.e. the only phone number I use/give online is a VOIP# that just redirects to voicemail immediately (and blocks the call if it's on my SPAMMER list of persistent annoyances).

For friends/family they have my cell# and it only lets calls through if they're in my contacts.

View on HN

Even though it should not be, this approach is a luxury that can only be afforded by those who do not need to take live calls from previously-unknown numbers. Job hunters, medical patients, etc.

It’s readily solvable not to require a phone number to add a TOTP app.

The point isn't to authenticate control of an account, it's to tie the account to some kind of expensive-to-replicate real-world cost, ideally one that most potential customers are already paying for.

Phone numbers are nice because the marginal cost to a customer is low (they probably already have one) while the marginal cost to a bad actor is high (it's expensive to acquire many of them or to change one once it's been identified as malicious).

My current phone contract: 3.99€/month

My current twitch subscriptions: 11.97€/month

I can’t really see how they need my phone number to make it too expensive to be a bot.

And if that is the thing, then that’d makes them even more shady, claiming it’s for account security when it’s for their bit protection.

How much does your VOIP cost?

I use voip.ms and is pay-as-you-go so it's nominal e.g. $1-2/mnth. It allows setting up all sorts of call handling rules (time-of-day, CID lists, call trees).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com