• pabs3 20 hours ago
    • packtreefly 9 hours ago

      They exist. Services treat control of the number as equivalent to control of the account, and expect you to maintain that control.

      Throwaway phone numbers are not a viable low cost or no cost alternative in most normal user signup scenarios, and they're implemented as a privacy invasive form of spam prevention for that exact reason.

      • ricardonunez a day ago

        I use google voice, and in the past other virtual phone numbers but many services don’t fully work. When you request a code, you never receive it and in some cases they tell you they don’t accept the virtual number.

        • potamic 17 hours ago

          The numbers would quickly be blacklisted by websites. You need a very large pool of numbers and make sure you don't reuse numbers too often. Not sure if it's practical.

          • JohnFen a day ago

            In the US, you can approximate this with a cheap prepaid service like a Tracfone.

            • piratesAndSons a day ago

              Don't get it? Can you explain further ?

              • JohnFen a day ago

                For about $20, you can buy a phone that comes with 10 minutes of talk time and has its own phone number. You can use that as a temp number. If you don't buy more time for that phone, the number will go away and you can then buy time for it and get a different number.

                Or, what I do, is just keep it loaded with a minimal amount of minutes and use the same number for all such registration purposes.

                I started doing this when I needed a whatsapp account, but didn't want to give facebook my phone number. I just keep that phone number alive, but never use it for anything else, and never even turn the phone on.

                • madamelic a day ago

                  Sometimes won't work, especially larger sites.

                  I used to run a service that was using Twilio to do exactly what OP is asking. These sites often flag and block all phone numbers that are virtual or prepaid.

                  • JohnFen a day ago

                    I've been doing this for about a decade and have never encountered that problem personally. Not saying that it doesn't happen, but it's uncommon enough for at least me to never come across it.

            • dabinat a day ago

              There are apps like Hushed where you can generate a working phone number for a pre-determined period of time.

              • fragmede 19 hours ago

                I've always wondered what it would take to be my own telephone company and get an entire prefix, so I can give out unique phone numbers, kinda like how's privacy.com does for credit cards.