this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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The times I have run into this verification stuff, it's for servers that want to be for adults only. And so would much rather just give Discord my phone number than a copy of my ID to the server owner, like most of them want to verify I am over 18.
It's not hard to get a toss away phone number you can use for these things or for 2FA stuff. Like a throwaway email.
How does one go about doing that? Because Google Voice doesn't seem to cut it.
I could stop trying to use Discord and drive to Best Buy and buy a cell phone and pay for a month of service. Then I could add the number to the account. Then if I stop paying for the monthly service, there's a good chance that Discord or whoever won't believe I'm me at some future login and will demand I give them a code they sent to the phone number on file.
I just searched for it and got into some shady free service that didn't even need an account, the only caveat is that you are sharing that temporary phone number with several people, and it will probably stop existing in some days, just enough to create an account.
Which means when they ask to verify your number again in 6 months, or after a computer upgrade, you are SOL without that specific phone number.
That's a lot of effort/cost that the user of a website/server has to do, just to access that website/service, when email validation already works (not as well, but still works).
The onus of the effort/difficulty of dealing with bots/etc. has been shifted from the website/server owner, to the user base.
I'm an avid gamer, and most Discord servers that have to do with a certain game, like WoW private servers, etc., require them.
I've attempted that a couple of times, and Discord has detected them and rejected them every time. There's some kind of identifier associated with a phone number that allows Discord to determine if it comes from a third party source.
There's many articles and Reddit style conversations about the issue, if you want to read up on it further.