Disposable phone numbers

Discussion of items in the "What's New" log.

Disposable phone numbers

Postby lwc » Mon Dec 25, 2006 12:58 am

How nice, finally the concept of disposable leaves the e-mail world. In Israel there was a time when one credit company provided disposable credit card numbers, but it didn't take off.

Now the US based http://www.jangl.com offers disposable phone numbers.

At this moment they offer only US numbers (:cry:).

Also, while in beta, the service is free.

Here's how it works:
1) User A registers by calling the company (suddenly Spamgourmet's verification system looks so admirable...).
2) User A gives user B an on demand disposable phone number.
3) User B calls it (costs like a local call - too bad a local call could cost money in places that aren't the US though...).
If it's the first time, user B would have to record a voice message and user A would hear it and could choose to accept or hang up.
From then on, it would just be a direct number to user A.
4) ...or to user B, if user A is the one that calls it. Yes, it's impossible with an e-mail address I guess, but a phone number could be bi-directional.

So basically it's like Spamgourmet for phone numbers.

Any chance Spamgourmet would enter the phone calls' world and provide a free solution? At least the offline spammers (telemarketers and polls' conductors) couldn't use DOS on you...:wink:
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Postby josh » Fri Dec 29, 2006 4:38 am

cool - I'll check it out, and probably use it

It was actually a proposal for disposable credit card numbers that got me thinking about disposable email addresses back in mid 2000 -- I think it was American Express that was promoting the idea earlier that year.
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Postby lwc » Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:16 pm

It's a shame the disposable credit cards didn't take off here. Actually, now (some years later) the same company decided to give it one more attempt. Only this time it's without the forwarding (like the free - no registration required - disposable e-mail services out there, which are great for one time messages only).

That is, in that old method, which they had to stop due to not being popular, it was just like your service. The disposable cards just pointed to the real card internally.

Now in the new method it's not linked directly to the real card, so you actually have to put money in it in advance. It's actually similar to PayPal - really a current bank account with a 0% interest rate (i.e. the longer the money is in there, the more value it loses).

Think how insane it is if you want multiple cards! It ruins the whole idea of having as many disposable items as you can. So there's no point joining in my eyes. I'd join the Spamgourmet method if they put it back to life again. I wonder if people actually prefer the newer method.
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Disposable Credit Cards

Postby ScottF4 » Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:10 pm

lwc wrote:It's a shame the disposable credit cards didn't take off here.
. . .

Citibank has virtual disposable credit cards, linked to your card for online or mail order purchases. You can either download a program or create them on line. You get to choose which of of your Citibank cards it links to, the credit limit and how many months the card is good for. You can also go back and increase the credit limit or expiration date.
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Postby mysticturner » Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:13 pm

lwc wrote:It's a shame the disposable credit cards didn't take off here.


As stated earlier American Express was the first to do this with credit cards. They could do it first because they own the whole show. End to end. Basically all they had to do was create an 'alias' card number in thier database that pointed to the real account.

All other card companies work differently. Going from the merchant to the bank you have the following companies. There's a merchant processor (who wouldn't care about disposable cards). The merchant sends the transaction to the association - either Visa/Mastercard (who does care about disposables, because they maintain a list of account numbers). The bank is last in the line with two stops - A frontend and backend.

The problems with disposable cards in the Visa/MC world was first solved by MBNA, who I worked for, pushing on the associations. Now all the card companies have it since the associations have made it a standard.

I think Discover was the last in the line to offer them.
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Postby lwc » Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:17 am

ScottF4 & mysticturner, you might want to state you live in the US (or so I assume...) because I don't think there's a world standard.

In Israel we have the same companies and I've already told you the story here.
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Postby DJA » Tue Jan 16, 2007 5:04 pm

mysticturner wrote:
lwc wrote:It's a shame the disposable credit cards didn't take off here.


As stated earlier American Express was the first to do this with credit cards. They could do it first because they own the whole show. End to end. Basically all they had to do was create an 'alias' card number in thier database that pointed to the real account.

All other card companies work differently. Going from the merchant to the bank you have the following companies. There's a merchant processor (who wouldn't care about disposable cards). The merchant sends the transaction to the association - either Visa/Mastercard (who does care about disposables, because they maintain a list of account numbers). The bank is last in the line with two stops - A frontend and backend.

The problems with disposable cards in the Visa/MC world was first solved by MBNA, who I worked for, pushing on the associations. Now all the card companies have it since the associations have made it a standard.

I think Discover was the last in the line to offer them.


...and Amex stopped offering them :wink: :roll:
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Postby JOMan » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:08 pm

By the way, Discover still offers disposable numbers. I used one just yesterday for my online purchases.
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Disposable phone numbers - Australia

Postby nick4mony » Thu Jun 12, 2008 1:00 pm

For anyone wanting disposable phone numbers in Australia:

2easy Telecom offers local numbers in several cities (as well as 1800 and 1300 numbers). Local number rental is $10pm, and you pay 10c per received call (more if diverting to mobile or outside Aus).

It's good if you want a number for a month to run a classified, then you can cut it away / get a different one when you're finished.

Contact details:
Glenn
02 9693 2231 Sydney (from outside Aus: +612 96932231)
2easy Telecom.

(For those outside Aus: The reason they charge more for diversions to mobile is that, in Aus, the caller [in this case, the diverting number] pays a timed charge (27 - 36 c/m) to call a mobile, and the mobile party doesn't pay - in countries like the U.S. the caller pays a local rate, and the mobile party pays to receive the call.)

(more for those outside Aus: a 1300 number is like a 1800 or UK 0800 number, except the (landline) caller pays 27.5c when the call connects - it's not a per-minute charge, so it doesn't matter if you're on hold for hours, it's still only 27.5c)

Nick.
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Postby JeffMuller » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:36 pm

Just signed up. Disposable email addresses is a great idea. I hate giving my email out and then getting flooded with spam. Disposable phone numbers would be an excellent idea too. I'm sure that would help to eliminate cold callers.

Have you read this Wartrol review by any chance.
Last edited by JeffMuller on Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:48 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Spam Gourmet Is Amazing

Postby joej121 » Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:53 am

I think my subject line sums it up, but finding Spam Gourmet is literally a god send after continually getting spam email for as long as I can remember.

I think disposable emails are the future!
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Postby lwc » Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:01 pm

Can anyone delete the spammer above me?

Anyway, Burner is a new iOS application for disposable phone numbers:
http://blog.burnerapp.com/introducing-b ... numbers-fo
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/08/08/b ... ur-iphone/
Each number costs like $2 and works for a week with limited usage.
Nicely enough, the number actually forwards the call to your real number (or to a disposable voicemail). It also masks outgoing calls.
As usual, it currently only works in US/Canada.
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Just Signed up for Burner as mentioned above. Cool.

Postby macgregor » Fri Sep 14, 2012 5:49 pm

Looking forward to checking it out -- I have (for the most part) been using Google Voice as a disposable phone number -- I like that effectively, you can go onto the site after someone calls you and block them very reliably by setting Google Voice to answer their phone calls (and ONLY calls from them or others you've blocked in this way) to SIT tones (I think that stands for "Situation In Transition" ... been a while since I was a phreak.) regardless, those are the three escalating tones you hear followed by "We're sorry, the number you have reached is out of service or is temporarily unavailable." -- which of course MOST autodialer software will recognize and delete your number. It's a grand thing. I think they've hidden that feature a little more (dost thou feel EVIL, Google?) but it's there.
As Robert Burns said:
"A Man's A Man For A' That."
[cue bagpipes] :-) ;-) :-P
We only owe them our best. --Frank Sinatra
Robbert Forbes MacGregor
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Re: Disposable phone numbers

Postby lwc » Fri Sep 28, 2012 10:59 am

Does Google Voice both forward (unblocked) calls to your real number and masks outgoing calls?
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Re: Disposable phone numbers

Postby macgregor » Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:01 pm

Yes, you have multiple ways of masking outgoing calls:

1) Log into voice.google.com and type in a number to dial
-- The system then dials OUT to your (hidden) cell or landline number, whichever you've specified that you want the call to be routed to
--When you answer, the system then completes the second leg of the call to the number you specified to call.
In this way, the person receiving the call gets the callerid of your Google Voice number, but you can "take the call" wherever you like -- a friend's house, a payphone, a burner number, whatever -- and since it's an incoming call, it doesn't show up on your friend's phone bill.

2) Dial your own Google Voice number from whatever phone you like, log in, then choose the option to place an outgoing call, it then prompts you for the number you wish to dial and completes the call with your callerid being shown as your Google Voice Number.

It does the same thing with texts -- you have a pass-through number you're texting with -- and you just have to either a) be able to figure out who it is texting you from New York City when you live in Texas, or ask them who they are, then set up that number as an additional number for that contact in your phone -- and then Google Voice will use that number (most of the time, if you have months or weeks in-between using that same number for that contact, it may change, but for the most part it stays 'alive' as the pass-through number you can call or text with, and the person on the other end only ever sees your callerid or ANI number as your Google Voice Number.

It's a great service, and it's particularly cool in that it's all free -- though they keep threatening to make it for pay. It *does* require a bit of management -- and they don't like you setting up multiple numbers -- but you can always get around that by setting up multiple gmail addresses ... though that can get to be a pain to manage as well.

-Mac
As Robert Burns said:
"A Man's A Man For A' That."
[cue bagpipes] :-) ;-) :-P
We only owe them our best. --Frank Sinatra
Robbert Forbes MacGregor
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