Ever used a shopping site and noticed that there’s a significant discount or promotional offer for people who either create an account or get the app? You might be wondering why the website cares so much about you creating an account. What’s in it for them?
Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
The answer is, simply, your data. Creating an account involves handing over your email address, and, increasingly commonly with websites today, your phone number. Mainly, that means they can send you marketing to remind you that they exist and encourage you to make another purchase. But when you just want to take advantage of an offer without having to sacrifice your personal data, it’s annoying to say the least.
Thankfully, there is an alternative that lets you sign up for shopping sites without exposing your number, and that’s what we’re discussing here.
The Risk of Sharing Your Real Number
Every time you enter your phone number online, you’re creating another opportunity for it to fall into the wrong hands.
Your phone number forms a part of your online identity, along with everything else you share on social media and the internet. It’s scary to think about just how much a person could learn about you from all your personal data, Google searches, social media likes and comments, and conversations with your friends and family.
Limiting how much data we share online is the most effective way to protect ourselves from scams and phishing attempts, which are easier to fall for when hackers know all our private information.
How to Avoid Using Your Real Number On Shopping Sites
So that leads us back to the question: how can you avoid using your real number when signing up for a shopping site—which, as we can all agree, isn’t worth giving out our data for?
One option that’s well worth considering is using a service like https://www.smspool.net/, which lets you buy temporary non-VoIP numbers (meaning they’re tied to a real SIM) to use instead.
You can buy a number for just a few dollars and enter it in place of your own number when you’re creating an account. You can then use the number to receive the SMS verification code online, enter this code, and log in.
The Best Uses of Temporary Numbers for Online Shopping
When you’re shopping online, there are a few occasions where using a temporary number instead of your real one just makes sense:
- When you just want to sign up, take advantage of a members-only deal, and make a one-time order.
- If you’re just browsing and need to create an account to access more products or deals.
- If, for whatever reason, you’re uncertain about a website’s legitimacy or security measures.
Essentially, if you’re in a situation that requires you to share a phone number, you can probably use a temporary non-VoIP number instead.
Just make sure you only need it for a temporary signup situation! It’s no good if you plan to use the account regularly and need the same number for multi-factor authentication every time.
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