As the tittle sais, i was trying to create an instagram account and it is not possible without a phone number. Same with discord. Obviously i dont want to provide mine. Any working solutions to bypass this? not looking for alternative private service, i already use them.

  • dmonzel@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Have you tried Firefox Relay? They have a paid tier that gives you a phone number and unlimited email masks. Yes, you have to provide a number, and yes you have to pay, but you wouldn’t be giving Meta or Discord your contact info.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I tried making an IG account a couple years ago, and they wanted me to send them a selfie with me holding up my ID. FOH with that shit lol.

    • Overzeetop@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      A second sim is the only options for some. Either ChatGPT or one of those requires a real-world mobile number. Anything on a VoIP is blacklisted. I literally can’t sign up for it or a couple other oddball services (like the Dunkin’ app*) because I refuse to divulge my carrier number to anyone but my family and 2-3 close friends. I have a (former) mobile number and two former landline numbers on VoIP that are my real, active numbers but some services simply refuse to use them.

      * I’d use my freebie backup sim for registration, but many use that # as their required+sole 2FA “security“ so signing up with it is useless as I’d have to use that phone every time I interacted. Maybe it’s time to look into eSIMs.

        • hulemy@ani.social
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          1 year ago

          Where I’m from you can buy a prepaid SIM card at a gas station which works just fine

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        1 year ago

        You just need a number that doesn’t show up as VoIP, it doesn’t actually need to be a SIM card. So if you have a Google fi number, you can use Google messages to access it over the web, even when the phone is off. Because when Carriers look the number up it doesn’t come over as VoIP it shows up as an actual mobile number.

        You can get numbers from twilio in countries that don’t report voip status. That also works.

        If you need a number in a country that does report VoIP status, you can use the phone number providers I posted in a different comment in this thread, to get a temporary number that is not VoIP, and receive your SMS verification

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    1 year ago

    https://kycnot.me/search?q=sms&type=

    Here is a list of services that accept crypto payments to give you sms receive access to a phone number. This way you can sms verify your account, with a throw away number.

    Once you create the account setup passkeys or use a fido2 key as your two factor verification. That way you can validate access’s to the account in the future without sms.

    • sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Been using jmp.chat. I didn’t have to give any personal info. It uses XMMP/Jabber to handle text/calls instead of wrapping your existing number. Their in-house client is pretty nice as it integrates with the dialer.

      They straight up tell you its not private. That’s not what I use it for. I use it to make my online activity less linkable when companies try to KYC me by requiring a TN.

      https://jmp.chat/privacy

      The phone network itself does not encrypt metadata or content.  Therefore, if your concern is a state-level actor, exploit of a service provider, or rogue employee, you should consider all the metadata and content of your phone calls and text and picture messages to be not private.

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        1 year ago

        The whole point is you’re not giving your information to anybody. You don’t give any information to the temporary number people.

        • ultratiem@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Yeh I was being facetious. They are transparent about which service requires what, and what they are capable of (not all accept codes). And you pay in crypto (they only support established ones), which is by definition anonymous.

  • reboot6675@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Damn, is it really like that now? I created my accounts for IG, Google, Discord, years ago and without a number. I refuse to provide it when they ask now and never had an issue.

      • nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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        1 year ago

        Same here, even worst if they detect you are using a VPN, they tag the account directly. This is the main issue in all services nowadays

    • Rose@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Discord can outright block you from using it if it decides to ask to connect a phone number post-registration.

        • Rose@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I didn’t say they always do it. I said they can, and they do sometimes. Happened to a close friend of mine after she logged in via Ripcord, though it may be unrelated.

              • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                And many didn’t, including myself. Never did anything that violates their terms before, but one day after I started trying out alternative clients, access to my account got terminated.

                That was two years ago though, I’ve heard they’re a bit less strict now.

  • Extras@lemmy.today
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    1 year ago

    If in the US, Prepaid sim with fake info. Mint’s trial sim gives you 7 days iirc for 2$ Edit: thought it was obvious but just to be clear, setup another form of 2fa after, like totp

  • mommykink@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My experience with the app Burner was pretty good because the app can accept texts from new numbers, unlike a lot of free online phone apps. It’s not free, however.

      • Zak@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Some services recognize VOIP numbers and intentionally reject them because they see mobile numbers as a more limited resource for abuse prevention purposes, or more valuable personal data for tying to an identity and selling what they know about you to advertisers.

  • Hairy_MacBoon@monero.town
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    1 year ago

    You can create an instagram account with Tor for example, but it’s extremely difficult. First try creating and Facebook account with their onion address. If not possible, try with the clearnet one. Then login to insta with that FB account. Your account might get restricted and you have to wait for a few months to lift it. You can also appeal to them.

    • neutron@thelemmy.club
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      1 year ago

      The acc is more likely to be flagged the more ‘generic’ your fingerprint is. Accounts made using Mullvad Browser (Torbrowser without Tor network) on VPN was insta-flagged and disabled. When I did it from the official ‘lite’ app using a burner android phone, it went fine for weeks.

  • buzz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I just get a second sim and phone number and just use that for these junk services.
    So far only for telegram and chatgpt.

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        1 year ago

        Anonymous Sims still exist in abundance. Cash for SIM cards is a big thing everywhere I’ve been.

        But the IMSI doesn’t change so it’s not really anonymous if your phone is tied to identity. Just depends on your threat model

        • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          First - the thing that is persistent with a phone is IMEI, IMSI is the one in the simcard. Second - “cash for sims” is not legal in many places, like where I live. There are places that sell illegal anonymous ones (not like you can get in trouble for that tho), but idk how reliable these actually are, and I still haven’t learned to find these places consistently.

      • neutron@thelemmy.club
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        1 year ago

        Not everyone is trying to run from total government surveillance. Sometimes, having an extra phone number, like having a pseudonym, is enough for them.

      • buzz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Anonymous SIMs haven’t been a thing for years.

        I dont know what you mean by “Anonymous SIM”. if you are trying to hide from the goverment- you wont be able to get a totally anonymous sim, no way. dont even bother.

        this is just so the end company like telegram/chatgpt wont be able to match your stupid posts to you by your permanent phone number. btut gov can always get you if they need to.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Honestly those services are bad for privacy anyway. Its a good excuse to look for alternatives

  • trippingonthewire@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I find that interesting, as there should be ways to only use email.

    I’d say your IP or DNS is freaking them out. Sometimes when you have really good opsec on a browser, they can tell and will ask for weird shit like that.

    I’d use a different browser, like maybe download Brave or Chromium or Librewolf (leave it out of the box) specifically for this stuff, assuming you use FireFox.

    You can also download 3rd party clients for Facebook on Android, Insta is kinda a lost cause tho.

    Edit: It’s not on F-Droid, you gotta hop on Github, but there is a client for Discord known as Aliucord on Android.

  • root@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    I think it was from one of the many communities here that I found out about juicysms.com

    Haven’t had the need to use their services yet but they look legit.

  • jherazob@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Just yesterday wanted to create a new Gitlab.com account to add an issue to a project, the stupid thing not only required an email and a phone number, the bastards wanted a credit card

    Just closed the site and went away instead. How is this considered okay to open a damn free account?

  • Corroded@leminal.space
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    1 year ago

    Unless you in an area that requires an ID to purchase prepaid SIM cards you could go that route. The issue would be when you need to log back into an account, it gets flagged, and you need to reuse that number for verification purposes.

    • jet@hackertalks.com
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      1 year ago

      This is why it’s critical to set up two-factor on the account once you register. Pass keys, fido2 keys, etc.

      This is so you can authenticate the account without the phone number. Just remember all of these systems are designed to the people can change their phone numbers, or when they lose their phones, etc you just have to provide enough factors so that they’re confident it’s actually you logging in.

  • ngn@lemy.lol
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    1 year ago

    just dont use those services? even if you find a way to bypass this, you wont get anything out of it, they will still collect all of your data such as your location, device information etc.