Services providing temporary numbers for receiving SMS online emerged after many social networks, marketplaces, and other online resources shifted from user identification during registration through email addresses to verification via codes sent to phone numbers, often requiring both phone codes and email confirmation.
Who are the services providing virtual numbers online for?
The entire audience of users of resources offering SMS reception on online phone numbers can be divided into groups:
The first group is the largest and generates the highest income for SMS activation services — these are individuals using various programs for boosting (likes, subscribers, votes, etc.). To carry out their activities, these people need thousands of bots, which in turn require thousands of phone numbers. We will refer to such SMS activation clients as "wholesalers."
Let's continue to categorize SMS activator users.
The second group, which we will call "shrewd users," consists of those who love to exploit vulnerabilities. For example, a few years ago, there were particularly shrewd individuals who understood the sequence of card numbers from the grocery store chain "Perekrestok" and, by trial and error, identified which cards had bonus points. They linked up to five cards to a new account (using numbers from SMS activation services) and could then easily pay for groceries in stores using these bonus points. A similar situation exists today, but now with the "Pyaterochka" chain, as it is part of the same retail group "x5 retail group" as "Perekrestok" and has decided to employ the same bonus system.
This group also includes those who monitor discounts and bonuses for their first purchase. Let's consider an example: a well-known fast-food chain, KFC, had a promotion where registering in their app or personal account on the website linked to the app would give you a 30% discount on a bucket of wings. Each time they went to buy wings, while the promotion was active, members of our group, who we call 'shrewd', registered a new account using a temporary number from one of the SMS activation services, paying no more than 5 rubles while gaining a 30% profit on their KFC order.
The last group of users of SMS activators
The third group is the smallest. These are individuals we will call 'part-timers' who acquire temporary numbers for receiving SMS, usually up to 10. Again, a better example: if you are involved in reselling cars and post listings on the marketplace Avito. The first listing will be free, while the second will incur a nominal fee; the more frequently and the more listings you place for car sales, the higher Avito will raise the price for you, up to 1000 rubles for a new listing. Avito employs a similar system for raising prices for posting advertisements for spare parts and other items. Alternatively, if you are a homegrown housewife wanting to check on your husband, you can create a page on Instagram or Vkontakte and message him from this new account, which has a photo of an attractive woman.
Pros and cons of the most popular SMS activation services
Now let's take a look at the largest and most popular services that provide temporary phone number rental for receiving SMS online:
1) The service has been around for more than three years. According to their statistics on the website, they register between 200 and 400 users daily, with at least one number purchased by 3000 to 5000 users. The prices for this service are average; some are higher, and others are lower. I will attach a detailed pricing table for the services discussed after the review. On the negative side, if you have less than 6% successful uses of the numbers, you get banned, and you will only find out after receiving the ban and contacting support. This means that if you try to register an account on Vkontakte, and the number provided to you already has an account registered, you can refuse it, but if you do this about 20 times in a row, you will receive a ban. The duration of the ban is completely unclear; they have their own algorithm, and the blocking conditions are not stated anywhere on the site.
2) Externally and in terms of pricing, it is very similar to the resource discussed above. On the downside, they also have something resembling bans, but it’s called a loyalty system or what is referred to as 'karma.'
The biggest drawback of this service compared to all the others discussed in this article is that simsms.org provides a number for 20 minutes, during which you will only receive one SMS from the selected service. All the other services in our article that provide a number for 20 minutes allow for unlimited SMS receipts from your chosen resource. This is very useful when registering, for example, to create a Yandex wallet, you first need to register a Yandex email (receiving 1 SMS with a code) and then register the wallet itself (another SMS), and you will pay for one resource.
3) A relatively young resource, possibly with the lowest prices. Unfortunately, they often suffer from attacks, and the site becomes unavailable. Recently, there have been no numbers available for the most popular services and 'other.'
4) One of the oldest SMS activation services, but it has deteriorated over the years. They have not developed at all; the site has barely changed since 2015. The personal account is very inconvenient. They do not display how many numbers from each service are currently available. The prices are also very high (you can see this in the table following the service descriptions).
5) are a “white” service with an openly registered LLC OnlineSim, where 6 people are employed, and even free resources provide information about them, including the CEO. This is certainly reassuring, but let's be honest — such services cannot be official by nature. For users, the most unpleasant surprise will be the identification through a photo of the passport accompanied by a piece of paper bearing your ID from their site and your registration page.
Identification on their website is mandatory when using Russian numbers; for foreign numbers, identification is not required. What will they do with the passport data? Perhaps they will take out microloans?
Prices
As promised, below is a comparison of the prices of the discussed services. Current as of 31.01.2019.
Summary
Your social media page may be blocked after a week or a month, and no SMS activation service will ever provide you with a number you obtained a week or even a day ago. Consequently, you will lose access to your social media page. Using the above-mentioned services should only be done with the understanding that the registered account may be blocked at any time, and you will lose access to it forever. Therefore, do not use accounts registered this way on a permanent basis. However, if you need a throwaway account, then go ahead. Just remember the risk of losing the account; none of these services will help you recover it.
Source: habr.com
