Numbers that can be used for registration. Free SMS reception

Today, more and more Internet services require you to indicate your mobile phone number when registering. From a security point of view, this is reasonable: confirmation via SMS greatly reduces the risk of account hacking. But there are situations when asking for a phone only gets in the way. For example, when creating another profile on the same resource.

As a rule, we only own one or two SIM cards. If their numbers are already present in the site database, problems arise with registration. What do we do in such cases? Either we abandon the idea, or we beg our relatives and friends to let us use their phones. However, there is an easier way - rent a virtual phone number.

Purpose, capabilities and advantages of virtual numbers

We have dealt with one of the types of virtual numbers - they are used to receive SMS when registering on social networks, for example, VK and Odnoklassniki, as well as on other web sites. The rental duration ranges from 5 minutes to a day. The cost of the service is symbolic. And in some places it’s completely free.

Another type of virtual phone is used in business. In this area, they are used not for registration on websites, but for their main purpose - to receive and make calls, as well as for SMS/MMS and fax messages. Such numbers are provided for rent (usually long-term) by telecom operators in various regions. The essence of the service is as follows: the subscriber (enterprise) is located in one region and works in another. In order not to go broke on paying for roaming and long-distance communications, the company buys (rents) a virtual number in the region of operation, all data from which is forwarded to the customer’s real phones or PBX. As a rule, the number provided is a regular one - municipal. Less often - mobile.

Advantages of virtual telephony:

• For users of VKontakte and other social networks - the ability to create an unlimited number of accounts.
• For those who register on the websites of stores and trading platforms, this is an opportunity to avoid telephone spam and protect themselves from scammers.
• For subscribers of paid gaming, music and other web services with a free trial period, where the user is identified by phone number: the ability to extend the free period for an unlimited time.
• For business - savings on communication services. Simplifying communications with the company for clients and partners in remote regions (this is no less important than personal savings, because few people want to pay for calls to your company at long-distance rates).

The best services for receiving SMS with Russian numbers

OnlineSim.ru

OnlineSim.ru is a classic paid, but inexpensive service for registration on Internet sites. Provides the following features:

• Select a number from an unlimited database. This ensures that no one has used it before you. The database is available 24 hours a day
• Receive an SMS to the number you previously used.
• Forward incoming messages to your personal mobile phone.

After registration (required here), you will have to top up your account. Currently (December 2016) there are 6 top-up options available:

• PayPal.
• Yandex money.
• Bank cards.
• Qiwi.
• Bitcoin.
• Z-payment (supports many different payment methods).

Tariffs, as can be seen from the screenshot, are low. The most expensive is 17 rubles for immediate provision of a number for VKontakte registration, which receives SMS within 20 minutes. If you want to save a little, you can get a used number for 12 rubles (but not used on this service), which sometimes you have to wait quite a long time.

The cheapest option is to rent a phone to receive SMS from Mamba, Yandex, WhatsApp, Telegram, SEOsprint, Friend Around, Steam, Uber and OpenI. Immediately - 3 rubles, used with a delay - 2 rubles.

OnlineSim offers a choice of MTS, Beeline and Megafon numbers. If you wish, you can set up a filter so that only phones from one operator are shown to you. Here you can also “filter” the region (Moscow, St. Petersburg), the ability to forward SMS to a personal mobile phone and a service option (repeat message and lease extension).

An account statement (with transactions, expense amounts and dates) is available for order on the website. And if difficulties or problems arise, you can always contact technical support.

In many ways, the hike is similar to the previous service. Here, too, a huge database of free, never used phones has been collected for registration on various resources. Prices are on average the same. So, renting a number to create a VK account costs 8-10 rubles. Buy a ready-made account - 12 rubles.

It will cost a little more to rent a number to receive SMS for a certain period of time: 3 hours - from 40 rubles, a day - from 60 rubles.

The list of Internet resources that SMS-reg.com works with is no longer than that of Online Sim, but here it is possible to use phones from several countries. Available countries: Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Bulgaria.

The main advantages of paid SMS receiving services are time savings. For a not too ruinous sum (2-15 rubles), you will be provided with a phone number from your own country (many domestic resources simply do not accept American and European numbers), which is guaranteed to have never been used by anyone. And the contents of the SMS that you receive will not be read by anyone except you.

OnlineSim and SMS-reg are far from the only sites that provide SMS receiving services. There are also those that do not require anything from the user at all. Even registration, not to mention payment. Of course, you won’t be able to register on VKontakte with their help, but for some “omnivorous” Internet sites they are quite suitable.

Free services with foreign numbers

is one of the easiest SMS receiving services to use. It works for free and without creating an account. The user just needs to borrow one of the available numbers for 5 minutes and indicate it when registering on the desired website. The current available number is displayed in the second field from the top. The response message (SMS confirmation) will appear right here - on the Sellaite page.

The advantages of the service are simplicity and accessibility. Disadvantages - all provided phones are reused, so the majority of online sites do not accept them. There are no Russian numbers. Ukrainian and Belarusian too. In addition, the text of the message addressed to you will be visible to everyone who is currently on the site.

Receive SMS Online

The Receive-sms-online.com service works in a similar way - just go in and pick up any of the eight available phones. Unlike Sellaite, Russian and Ukrainian numbers are often available here.

Next to each phone it shows how many times it was used in the last 24 hours. The smaller the number, the more likely it is that the number will be accepted by the site where you are registering.

Reply SMS messages with confirmation codes are sent here. To read, just click on the number.

Twilio.com

Twilio.com, in comparison with the previous two, is a much more civilized service - one of the most popular web resources of its kind in the English-speaking space. Its assets include an extensive database of telephones from various countries around the world. However, there are very few Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians among them.

Twilio's services are free to use, but you must create an account to do so. When registering, it is important to provide a real email address and your mobile phone number, otherwise you will not receive confirmation and will not be able to log into your personal account.

To get your first free Twilio number, click “Get Started.”

The next window will display the virtual phone provided to you. Despite the fact that the service tries to select numbers from their countries for users, not everyone gets Russian phones. For example, we got the American one.

If you want to change the number, click “Choose this Number”.

To close the window, click “Done”.

If you are also not satisfied with the new option, by clicking “Buy a phone number” you can buy another one. In this case, you will be given a choice of phones from 20-30 countries. Perhaps you will be lucky: Russia will be among them.

To manage Twilio numbers, click the “Manage phone numbers” button.

The information you are interested in is in the “Message Log” section.

Proovl.com (formerly Smscan.com)

is the last really working virtual telephony service in today’s selection. Provides real mobile numbers for short-term use. The cost of services is from €0 (for one SMS) to €5 (for daily use).

A trial SMS reception on Proovl does not require registration (the received message is displayed on the website). If that's not enough, after creating an account and topping up the account, the user is given a choice of a dozen phones in Europe and the USA.

The site has 2 tariff plans: standard and premium. One-time reception of messages on both tariffs costs nothing. Connecting a permanent virtual number costs €5-10. Subscription fee per day is €5. On the standard tariff you can connect no more than 2 numbers at the same time, on the premium tariff there are no restrictions.

Proovl virtual phones can be used for registration on any Internet sites (except those that send data only to Russian numbers) and, unlike a number of similar ones, they accept long messages. Information is stored in the user's personal account for up to 150 days.

A short review below will look at the other side of the coin - the risks of hacking accounts on Internet resources in cases where there is access to receiving SMS - for example, in the case of using free virtual number services.

Introduction

Often, users do not want to leave their personal phone numbers, and also save on buying numbers for forwarding or organizing SMS reception, using free services available on the Internet.

There are actually quite a few such services; some currently working ones are listed below:

The essence of how these services work is simple: the user is provided with a certain number and a basic web interface that displays SMS messages arriving at this number in real time.

You can choose numbers from different countries, the most popular are the USA, Russia, Great Britain and Canada, although exotic lovers can use phones from, for example, the Philippines or Brazil.

To use toll-free numbers, the services do not require registration and are completely anonymous. If the user wants to get a number that will not be displayed to everyone, he will have to pay for it. The price depends on the rental period of the room and the country code - and can vary widely from a couple of hundred rubles to $30 and more.

It is clear that an ordinary user who does not want to “reveal” his number and receive spam in the form of SMS, at the same time underestimates security and uses free, temporary and publicly available services. Usually, this is motivated by “email is enough for me to recover my password”, “I won’t use it anyway”, etc.

Risks and attack description

The risks in the described situation are obvious: an attacker can read SMS, like any other visitor to a toll-free number website. This means that a password recovery procedure could potentially be initiated on the account page by sending a code to the linked phone number - after which access is easily obtained.

After gaining access, an attacker can easily change email addresses and phone numbers, and thus completely take over the victim’s account.

Since the list of toll-free numbers is sometimes updated quite rarely - once every few months - the attacker can find a lot of quite interesting information accumulated by the victim during this period.

Our little analysis

We tried to use the specified mechanism and gain access to some accounts.

We have found the following main use cases for free SMS services with access.

• Social networks and dating services. In this case, access is fairly easy to obtain, especially if the user has not installed additional security checks. It should be said that most of the accounts were used for fraud and were blocked, but in a number of cases they were quite usable, sometimes even with activated paid services. Especially in this case, users of dating services are vulnerable, for example, Mamba, since additional security is simply not provided on these resources, and the correspondence contains a lot of sensitive information that can easily be used for blackmail.
• Registration Viber, WhatsApp, etc. Despite the obvious fact that after a toll-free number becomes obsolete, a user can easily lose access to their account, we found quite a lot of actively used accounts. The risks in this case are completely similar to social networks - all sensitive correspondence, as well as photos, can become the prey of an attacker.
• Use of various Internet services. Very often, a login and password were sent to the number, and therefore access was obtained absolutely without problems. We did not set a goal to break the record for the amount of money on services, moreover, we did not use a single penny, but there was money:
• Fraudulent activities. Taxi drivers were especially pleased in this regard: the overwhelming number of accounts that were obtained using free virtual numbers and verified by us corresponded to drivers, but not to passengers. This seemed logical to us: it is unlikely that a passenger would want the driver not to reach him on the phone, but the driver very often dials from another number, “because the phone is dead,” etc. Such schemes allow you to reset your rating again, use several cars, etc.

  We also noted a lot of SMS related to applying for credit cards, obtaining loans, etc.

• Preparation of insurance policies, loyalty program cards, etc.

conclusions

Apparently, users are not sufficiently aware of the criticality of using free virtual numbers to register various accounts and other services. This can be somehow explained in cases where the number is used to test such a registration (although the testing process itself cannot be convenient, since anyone can “hijack” the account obtained in this way and interrupt the progress of work), but cannot in any way be justified in cases where such registration will be seriously used subsequently.

It's funny that despite the fact that many services check the number's binding to VoIP services (for example, it will not be possible to register using numbers linked to Google Voice / Hangouts), we are not aware of such a check for binding to free virtual numbers - although such verification could easily be done with a simple call to the number.

VKontakte is the most popular social network in Russia and the CIS countries. Not only the number of active users is growing every day, but also the number of fake accounts. To solve this problem, VKontakte management decided to link it to a specific phone when creating a page, which not all users liked. How to register in VK without a phone number? Let's figure it out.

What does registration via phone give?

Not everyone understands the importance of linking a phone when creating an account on social networks. The introduction of such a function has two main goals:

1. Improve security. When you link your cell phone, spam bots will not be able to send “unpleasant” messages to friends from your profile. In addition, this makes it more difficult to hack an account, since login sessions from other PCs are displayed on the mobile device;
2. Support for the mobile version of VKontakte.

It should also be taken into account that the developers of the social network plan to completely abandon the use of email to link a profile in order to increase the level of security.

Is it possible to register in VK without a phone number?

There is no definite answer to the question, since in any case you will have to enter the number or use third-party resources. Of course, the field can be left empty, but then the user will be missing some of the capabilities without which VKontakte cannot be called a social network, namely:

• A ban is imposed on sending personal messages to other users;
• It is forbidden to add as a friend;
• Possibility to join groups.

If a social network is needed only to listen to music or watch videos, then you can register in VK without a phone number.

Register on VKontakte without a phone number

There are three main ways to create a VK page for free without linking a number:

1. “Fake” (unreal) phone ;
2. Login via Facebook;
3. Via virtual number.

Let's consider each method in order.

Fake number

The essence of the method is that when creating a profile, the user does not use his own number, but someone else’s. For example, borrow a phone from a friend or buy a second SIM card. On the confirmation page, enter the third-party number:

If you have a landline phone, you can go a different route. To do this, just enter the number in 11-digit form and click “Get code”. The robot will call and tell you the profile activation code. This method allows you to register countless pages using one phone.

The risk of this method is that if you lose data from your account, it will be difficult or even impossible to recover the password (in the case of a landline number). It is recommended to use the “Fake Phone” method only if the page is not the main one.

Login via Facebook

Despite the fact that Vkontakte is a Russian-language site, the current owners of mail.ru are trying their best to enter the foreign market by collaborating with other social networks. One of these partners is Facebook.

VKontakte provides only for foreign residents register on the resource via Facebook. But since we are in Russia, we will have to cheat the system a little. For this we will use anonymizers, of which there are a huge number on the Internet.

As an example, consider one of the popular anonymizers “Chameleon”. Go to the site:

Simply enter vk.com into the search bar or select from the list of popular queries.

This is what registration looks like for residents from Russia:

And this is what the site looks like for a user logged in through an anonymizer:

Accordingly, click on “Log in with Facebook”.

Note: Do not forget that this method requires a Facebook account, for registration you only need an email.

The risks of the method are the same as those described above: the inability to recover lost user data.

Creating a VKontakte page via a virtual phone

Now let's talk about a complex but more effective way to create an account on VK without a phone.

To create a virtual number will use international servicepringer. com. You cannot make calls through it, but you can receive SMS messages that are necessary to complete registration.

If you have an account on google+, Facebook or Twitter, then to save time you can access the service through these resources.

It should also be noted that the number is issued to you on an ongoing basis. If you have forgotten your account password, you can request confirmation of the recovery request on your current phone.

You can use not only the Pringer service, but other analogues of virtual cellular (Room5, Kontiki, Bizo, Kendo UI).

Video instructions: how to register in VK without a number

The following video presents the main ways to register on the VKontakte social network without entering a personal phone number. All methods are valid:

Despite the large number of ways to bypass the system, do not be afraid to enter your personal phone number when creating a profile in VK. Firstly, registration is completely free - not a penny will be charged from the user. Secondly, it will increase the level of security. It is more difficult to hack an account, and you will always be aware of unauthorized actions from your page.

The Internet opens up wide opportunities not only for limitless communication, but also for personal privacy. One of these services is a virtual number - a “fake” phone that receives incoming messages and calls, forwarding them to the user’s real phone number. A virtual number is useful both for doing business and for personal interests, especially when registering on social networks and websites, in order to limit your personal number from many unnecessary mailings and third-party calls. A virtual number can be one-time use, for example, needed to register a new page on VK, or for permanent use (conducting commercial activities). In the first case, it will be a free service, and with constant use, a virtual number will need to be purchased.

The scope of use of a virtual number is quite wide:

• with their help you can forward an incoming call to any landline, mobile phone or IP address;
• receive incoming text messages (SMS);
• used for sending SMS newsletters;
• they are indicated when registering on various websites and social networks;
• You can record and receive voice messages to a virtual number;
• This is a very convenient service for mass customer service via voice menu, etc.

Free virtual number services

There are quite a lot of services providing virtual number services. We will look at the 3 most popular and simple ones that provide this service for free:

1. Twilio
2. TextNow
3. Countrycode.org

Twilio

is a well-designed service whose main activity is to provide IP telephony services around the world. High technology and high-quality development are the main advantages of the service. Therefore, its main functionality is paid. But it is possible to work in test mode for free. To do this, you need to register on the Twilio website (menu “ Sign Up") and you can get a number to receive messages in order to register on the site.

The registration procedure requires specifying an email address, user personal data, and password.

Confirmation of registration is carried out by sending an SMS with a code to a real phone number, which must be entered into the appropriate field on the website.

For the system to send a virtual number to the user, you need to click “Get you First Twilio number”, that is, “Get a number”.

There is one caveat - the service is completely English. But the entire registration procedure is standard, so there should not be any difficulties, especially if you have basic knowledge of the English language. But a problem may arise when searching for a suitable virtual phone number. The fact is that there are no Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian numbers in the Twilio database, so the client will be offered a US phone by default. If it does not suit you, you can select a suitable number from another country from the list.

To do this, click “Search”:

If you agree with the operating conditions of the system, in the "Features" list ( Capabilities) indicate why you need a virtual number: MMS, SMS, calls or all together.
This is necessary to select the appropriate free numbers, since not all of them in the database can receive and send text messages. Next, select “Search”.

Numbers will appear on the screen that you can use to register. Choose one of them. To read messages that have been received at this number, for example, a confirmation code sent to register on a social network, go to the menu “ Logs" -> "SMS & MMS":

You can release the number at any time (if you no longer need it). To do this, simply enter “Numbers”, then “Twilio Numbers” and select “ Release Number»:

TextNow

- an excellent service for getting a virtual phone number for free. The main advantage of TextNow is that the system issues a number not for a certain time, but for permanent use. In addition, the web service has a mobile version as an application on Android, PC and other OS. Despite the fact that the service is free, advertising will be constantly broadcast to you as payment, so to speak. If this interferes with your work, you can simply buy an inexpensive subscription and use virtual numbers constantly without interference. The service is suitable for making calls, registering on various sites, exchanging text and multimedia messages, forwarding calls and receiving voicemail.

To start using TextNow's capabilities, you need to install the application or register on the website. But a problem may arise here, since the system often does not allow IP addresses of CIS countries to pass through:

But this problem can be dealt with. Thus, a virtual number will be issued as quickly as possible, automatically.

The service is also English-language. In the “Conversionals” section you can view incoming SMS messages, and in the “My Account” section you can see your number.

Countrycode.org

- a virtual telephony service with a huge number of numbers in the database of all countries of the world. Free use of the service is possible for 10 days. But you can only spend no more than $4 on communication.

To use a Countrycode.org virtual number you need to follow a few simple steps:

Each of these services has its own difficulties and advantages. The easiest thing to do, in our opinion, is Twilio. And then, it’s up to you to decide!

I’m writing this post from under the table... hiding. What did you think? Today we will engage in illegal activities, just shh!

Well, okay, in fact, in what I write, there is nothing inherently illegal, but these actions violate the rules for using the social network VKontakte.

And this means that creating fake pages, in theory, can lead to blocking of your accounts, and not only fake ones, so think twice if you need it =)

Well, what did you think? Is it good? Well, if anything I warned you. The other day I needed to create another account on this social network. network, but I didn’t like the limit of 1 account per 1 person. First, a little theory.

What is fake VKontakte

This is fake user pages with fictitious data, i.e. in reality such a person does not exist. Of course, according to the rules of social media. This is prohibited on the network, but not all users are ready to share their personal data.

I think you’ve met people like this quite often - their profiles are not filled out, their first and last names are unnatural ( for example Bublik Tumbochkin🙂), there is either no photo on the avatars or some kind of left picture, the albums are empty, etc. However, a high-quality fake with a completed profile is difficult to distinguish from real ones. Some even impersonate other real people, but this can already smack of a real violation of the law.

Why do they create fakes on VKontakte?

In fact, there are quite a few reasons, and the ways to use a fake on VK are limited only by your imagination. Starting from getting likes, voting, distributing the necessary information, etc. and ending with upgrading gaming applications that have become very popular.

Those who are smarter make good money from this. If you wish, you can add thousands of friend requests to each account in a couple of days. And then you can register on sites that allow you to monetize social media. networks, for example, and earn money by placing advertisements on fakes. Although, in my opinion, it is faster and easier for a beginner to make money on the Internet on a freelance exchange - everyone can do at least something from the list of services (drawing, layout websites, edit videos, write texts, promote public pages, etc.), and you get at least 500 rubles for 1 order.

Imagine that you have 100 different accounts under your control, all with different names, surnames, ages, etc. Thus, you have the weight of 100 people in this social colossus, and this is no small amount. You can practically shape public opinion alone =)

In short, I think you understand, there are a lot of ways to use it. Now let's get to the heart of the matter.

How to make a fake in contact

If you have a VKontakte page, then log out of your account and click the Registration button.

Enter the First Name and Last Name you came up with.

The fact is that previously accounts were linked only to email, and there were no problems creating fakes) Then you could unlink your phone number from your account, and thus you could register several pages on one phone. But now, Comrade Durov realized that this was not the case, and registered on the site via SMS activation without connection.

Moreover, you can only link 1 account to one phone number, that’s the problem. Durov did not take into account that we may need 5-10 or even more pages on social media. networks :)

Of course, buying 10 different SIM cards or asking all relatives to activate accounts is not the best option; there are simpler and cheaper ways.

At first, of course, I tried to link several pages to one number) The system suggested that I unlink the number from the old one and link it to the new page, I kindly agreed, thinking that there was nothing wrong with that) The page was created, everything was ok. However, when I went to my main page, a message so unobtrusively crawled onto the floor of the screen, saying that your page is not linked to a phone number, link otherwise, ah-ah-ah, and so on)

I thought about it and decided to return the old number back. As a result, it jumped across the pages 3 times and I received the last Chinese warning from VKontakte :) It read something like this - your phone number is not a toy, take this seriously, damn it, this is your last attempt to link a number, we no longer intend to tolerate this disgrace )

Tough guys in a word) I had to look for other ways to create fakes.

SMS account activation VKontakte

After torturing the search engine a bit, I found several ways. I’ll say right away - you shouldn’t use any dubious free services, super programs, bots, etc. because you risk losing access to your account altogether or infecting your computer with a virus. Among the safe ones:

1st This means buying ready-made fakes from your hands. I didn’t really like this option, since I had to first find the seller online, then contact and negotiate with him, then make a deal, and there are no guarantees that you won’t be deceived and you’ll just waste money ( Although not large, accounts cost around 10 rubles. a piece)

2nd This is through intermediaries to activate the account on their SIM card numbers. It’s also not particularly expensive, from 10 to 100 rubles depending on the account, but as in the previous version, there are still the same disadvantages. No one will give guarantees, besides, they usually work with bulk orders, if you need 1-2 fakes, then it’s unlikely that anyone will waste their time on you.

3rd the one I settled on are special services that provide the ability to activate via virtual SIM cards for a small fee (15-50 rubles per SIM card, depending on the service and tariff).

The demand for rooms is quite high, and sometimes there are not enough for everyone. Therefore, you can often see the inscription “ No numbers. Try again later." Well, there is no choice but to follow the advice and try later. Ideally, do these things at night, then there will be less queues)

Sometimes it happens that someone has already used this number before you, then when registering, VK will give an error that the number is already occupied. There is nothing wrong with this, in the Activations section on the website you can click the Cancel button and indicate the reason that the number has not already been activated by me. The money will be returned to your balance and you will be able to purchase another virtual number again.

Congratulations on the new fake, use it with caution, fill in at least the minimum data so that you don’t get burned so much) By the way, I completely forgot to say - you won’t be able to top up your votes through a fake page, because... confirmation via SMS will be required... however, I don’t think anyone will need to do this :)

Do you use fake accounts on social media? networks? And if so, for what purposes?)

By the way, if you are interested in how your fresh fake can quickly gain friends up to several thousand, then that’s what I’m talking about