Using disposable phone numbers for better security
shkspr.mobi
shkspr.mobi
The blogger said nothing about all this. That's totally over the top just to obtain a disposable number. He's talking about a prepaid SIM; but when I signed up to AT&T they didn't ask and I didn't tell, but who cares? That's not the point here.
I just want my delivery driver to stop sending me creepy texts.
And if my pizza place leaks my number, I can throw it away without having to tell friends to update their address books.
I remember it because before that I assumed they had no way to determine how the phone number is purchased, but I think they can just blacklist prepaid providers.
You can't use it for certain 2FA situations, but it works for Craigslist transactions or when some business requires it.
Places like Twillio and SIPgate will happily let you rotate numbers - but there is a cost and they're often not tied to a specific SIM.
There was also some concern that apps wouldn't go for it because it made their users look untrustworthy.
Nubank [https://nubank.com.br/en/] lets you create as many virtual credit cards as you want, and you can delete them right away after using them. I now create one for each online transaction.
I imagine phone numbers will eventually be treated the same, specially once eSIM gets more and more common and the number is not tied to a piece of plastic anymore.
In Canada, as I assume is the same as US, even a new phone number will get bombarded with spam calls as soon as you turn it on.
I really like the idea of the post and would love to have phone numbers work like Nubank's credit card, and I would be able to create a new number (already tied to my information), use it on less reliable things, then delete it once it was over.
Side effect is that lots of companies now ban Lebara Mobile because the fraud rate from their whole range of numbers is really high.
And Capital One has it too, less configurable though.
BofA used to have it. I remembers that it was a Flash popup window. But it's gone now, guess it was cheaper to sunset than to rewrite in Javascript.
Ex: I go to Ebay / Amazon / Alibaba / Walmart / Etsy / Newegg / NoNameSpecialtySite on my phone/desktop/both and make an order. Lets say I make two in a day. One from phone while at work and one from desktop at home. How does that actually occur, and does, Amazon for example, then show me as using a long list of defunct cards? If I make 30 purchases a month, do I have 30 defunct cards on file? Do they freak out about the "we see you're using a new card" all the time, or "you look like a card thief to our algorithm"?
Then you use it like a normal card, so on the retailers it will be just like you use a physical card.
For example, I wouldn't have one card per purchase for Amazon, but one virtual card for Amazon that I would switch every few purchaces or something like that.
I haven't had any issues with this and have been doing it for a few years now.
Instead, I assume my phone number is compromised, and my address is leaked. I'm wary on receiving anonymous phone calls. I only pick up my phone saying 'yeah?' or my first name. If it is a hostile caller then I simply hang up. Don't argue, don't comment. Hang up.
However if I were to receive a lot of BS calls I'd implement the mentioned system. I believe this is also why 2FA over mobile was rolled out by data gathering companies: to get your phone number.
There is no way to link anything over that.
Ironvest (previously called Blur) has a service where they give you a virtual number...but it's only one number, and once you start using it at enough places, it becomes hard to delineate what's junk and what's not.
I want something like what OP is describing wherein I can give trusted entities my real phone number and every other business I interact with some different number that I can terminate whenever.
But, at least with this method you'll know if your "credit card" calls you on the wrong number.
The number of spam calls & texts I receive in the UK is minimal.
I suggest lobbying your politicians or moving somewhere with better enforcement.
Nope, can't to it. It insists on a phone number, but my real phone number is somehow unacceptable. Probably because it is already tied to X other Google accounts.
So...what's the best solution? This must be s common problem for anyone doing Android development?
I have a total of 6 LLCs(only 1 of them is profitable), and I use my same phone number for all of them.
Chickens and eggs: I want a new Google account, for which I need a new phone number. But to get a new phone number, I need a different Google account.
Annoying...
What? You threw your number away? Tough shit, I guess.
For The Netherlands, I always give out the fake number 0612345678. A lot of people do that, and some Dutch websites recognize it as invalid. But American and Chinese websites accept it fine.
Sometimes - and I know this makes me unusual - I want to receive a phone call. A delivery driver letting me know they'll be early / late. A Freecycler letting me know where their house is. Someone calling me about my lost cat.
If I give a fake number, I cannot speak to people.
Now, that is my situation. If you have some kind of complex address which isn't clear on Google Maps then perhaps having decent contact details is more clever. But I still have two concerns on your argument: 1) in my example, they have my e-mail address already so they can contact me 2) even if you get your pizza delivered wrong, that is the problem of the deliverer. Not yours.
Once I had my neighbors who got a cold pizza delivered. They called up and got a new one, and gave the old one to us (I think also some to other neighbors). We put it in parts in the mini oven we had back then and enjoyed our free pizza. Which ended up as our favorite from that specific pizzeria.