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Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

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Re: Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

#11

Post by amjd »

wfunction wrote: post #8
gst wrote: post #6

It's relatively easy to change/fake the caller ID of phone calls so unfortunately this approach isn't really secure. That's why phone number verification usually places an outgoing call, to verify that you're actually able to receive calls on that number.

At the risk of sounding like I'm actually going to abuse this capability... if it's done "relatively easily", how is this done?

Most VoIP providers let you use any number as the caller ID with a simple SMS verification. So, if you were to have access to someone's phone for a few minutes you could possibly verify it and use the number for making calls and sending text messages from the VoIP service.

I believe the SMS verification is something that companies use to avoid liability alone, technically they can use any number as the caller ID if they choose to.

Re: Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

#12

Post by Buge »

wfunction wrote: post #8
gst wrote: post #6

It's relatively easy to change/fake the caller ID of phone calls so unfortunately this approach isn't really secure. That's why phone number verification usually places an outgoing call, to verify that you're actually able to receive calls on that number.

At the risk of sounding like I'm actually going to abuse this capability... if it's done "relatively easily", how is this done?

Some friends and I used to make prank calls with fake funny caller IDs using https://www.spoofcard.com/

Re: Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

#14

Post by h43k3r »

kevindeasis wrote: post #7

Hi, there's a free phone verification using facebook. It's account kit. https://developers.facebook.com/docs/accountkit/overview What do you guys think?

This seems interesting. Do you know of any app currently using this. I would like to quickly try it out before the hassle of setting it up myself.

Re: Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

#15

Post by finnn »

wfunction wrote: post #8
gst wrote: post #6

It's relatively easy to change/fake the caller ID of phone calls so unfortunately this approach isn't really secure. That's why phone number verification usually places an outgoing call, to verify that you're actually able to receive calls on that number.

At the risk of sounding like I'm actually going to abuse this capability... if it's done "relatively easily", how is this done?

My SIP provider passes whatever number I send, for most of the numbers. No talking to them required. Particularly fun for Android phones that do Google Maps lookups for caller ID, so calling from 2024561414 shows up as "The White House"

Just for fun i went ahead and verified 2024561414 with the demo of this thing. It gave me a nice little check mark showing that I was definitely the White House

Re: Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

#17

Post by kevindeasis »

h43k3r wrote: post #14
kevindeasis wrote: post #7

Hi, there's a free phone verification using facebook. It's account kit. https://developers.facebook.com/docs/accountkit/overview What do you guys think?

This seems interesting. Do you know of any app currently using this. I would like to quickly try it out before the hassle of setting it up myself.

Sorry, I don't recall businesses using account kit. However, it's pretty easy to do a basic setup.

Re: Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

#18

Post by chambo622 »

kevindeasis wrote: post #7

Hi, there's a free phone verification using facebook. It's account kit. https://developers.facebook.com/docs/accountkit/overview What do you guys think?

Similar to Twitter's Digits, which has been around for a while and seems quite popular. https://get.digits.com

Re: Show HN: Phone verification at no cost

#20

Post by reitanqild »

gst wrote: post #6

It's relatively easy to change/fake the caller ID of phone calls so unfortunately this approach isn't really secure. That's why phone number verification usually places an outgoing call, to verify that you're actually able to receive calls on that number.

This has been the case since I was a kid. My dad told me that I could verify[0] the identity of a caller by calling back to a number that was known to belong to the entity in question.

[0]: for some level of security. My father was a farmer at that time and I know he wasn't talking about a nation state adversary ;-)

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