I once caught a thief who stole my Nokia MS Windows phone using this feature. Apparently they didn't reset the phone in the start, but put their sim in, and some of their SMS started syncing to my other phone before it occurred to them to reset. One of the message was a Facebook password reset helper message, which had the clear phone number and link to a page which had instructions on how to reset the password.
Clicking on that link, also set a cookie IIRC on my laptop, Facebook started showing their DP as one of the options to login (it would still ask for their password so I was not able to log in to their account). Their DP URL has their user ID embedded in it which was enough to find their profile. Turns out they were friend with another person who was in my college (and where my phone was stolen from). We caught that person, involved the university administration, and made him give us the phone back. It was the whole scandal for a while. University expelled that person later on.
(Going to police was not really an option since this was in India, I wanted to resolve matter on my own if possible even when I had phone number).
Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
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Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#92Y'all know we used to publish everybody's phone number in a book along with their address and then distribute copies to every household, right? We did it for many decades and it was fine. Every pay phone, which was a phone anyone with a couple coins could make anonymous calls from, had this giant book right there for your reference. Everyone knows this, right? If you didn't know someone's number you could look it up…
I'm sure not everyone knows this, because there are are people on this site who have not grown up with phone books. The article talks about a reverse phone book: according to the author, given a phone number, you are able to look up name (and profile picture). To my understanding there were no reverse-lookup phone books like that back in the day.
In some countries you could call a number to do it.
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#93Y'all know we used to publish everybody's phone number in a book along with their address and then distribute copies to every household, right? We did it for many decades and it was fine. Every pay phone, which was a phone anyone with a couple coins could make anonymous calls from, had this giant book right there for your reference. Everyone knows this, right? If you didn't know someone's number you could look it up…
One key difference is that, at least in the UK, you could opt out
Even from facebook you could opt out. I am mostly sure you can create account without phone number
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#94So called "Identity Graph" or "Identity Resolution" providers integrate with thousands of CRM systems and harvest the customer data in bulk, then sell the combined profiles back to the companies integrating them. Get an API access, provide one piece, like a phone number, and they resolve it to names, home addresses, email addresses, social media usernames and so on.
I mean i don't like facebook, but this topic is small fish
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
One key difference is that, at least in the UK, you could opt out
Even from facebook you could opt out. I am mostly sure you can create account without phone number
It might depend on your IP and other factors. I tried to make a new one about a year ago and could not do it without phone verification.
Maybe they'll let you sign up without a phone number via Tor or something though.
It's not just Facebook that requires a phone verification now, I can't even make a Google or Yahoo Japan account without it. At least on these services you can "reuse" previously used numbers by unlinking them, at least a few times. But services like Discord lets you verify with each number once and only once as far as I know.
On the one hand I get that there's a room for abuse by spams, but on the other hand, I really wish I could freely sign up to services.
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
While this is factually correct, what you are missing is the point that most people have mobile phones these days, and their phone numbers are tied to a ton of other accounts and services. These include second factor auths (using text or voice calls) for other websites, bank accounts, social security ids (I'm not talking about the US), insurance policies - the list goes on. You would not want your number to be availa…
Here in Finland many if not most mobile phone numbers are in the phone book. Well, no physical book has been printed for years, but you can call directory enquiries or look them up online. Even reverse look-ups are possible. (Only an ever shrinking minority of households still owns a landline.) How exactly would that subvert 2FA via SMS? Except for calling and ask please read the SMS you just received for me. While t…
It subverts 2FA and SMS because of SIM hijacking. If a bad actor has your mobile number and you use that for 2FA, they can socially engineer (or bribe) a rep from your mobile company to assign your number to a new SIM/phone.
This is a common attack these days.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/11/18564381/community-hackin...
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#97Y'all know we used to publish everybody's phone number in a book along with their address and then distribute copies to every household, right? We did it for many decades and it was fine. Every pay phone, which was a phone anyone with a couple coins could make anonymous calls from, had this giant book right there for your reference. Everyone knows this, right? If you didn't know someone's number you could look it up…
Attitudes have changed. A friend recently posted a newspaper clipping from nearly 40 years ago when he won some sort of "attractive baby" competition in Guildford, UK. The paper included his name and full address. Can you imagine that now and the "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PEDOS!" response it would illicit!
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#98This is a GDPR violation. I hope the author already complained to the authorities. (Since there is a German phone number is used in the example, I assume that the authors is from Germany)
I don't understand why this was downvoted. It is a GDPR violation. That's a fact.
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#99Y'all know we used to publish everybody's phone number in a book along with their address and then distribute copies to every household, right? We did it for many decades and it was fine. Every pay phone, which was a phone anyone with a couple coins could make anonymous calls from, had this giant book right there for your reference. Everyone knows this, right? If you didn't know someone's number you could look it up…
The phone book was always opt-in in Germany, and reverse lookup was declared illegal after some time too. They suggested in when you signed the contract, but it was a clause you could easily not accept, at no extra cost.
Re: Look Up Unknown Phone Numbers Using Facebook Reset Password
#100Before gathering up the mob and handing out the torches and pitchforks, you should probably establish what the facts actually are. I don't think the author of this post has really done that. The way these systems should work, and appear to work in Facebook's case, is that the amount of information revealed depends on risk analysis. For example, I just tried recovery from an IP I've used Facebook from, and from a fres…
The author is a bit late to the party - this used to be a thing. IIRC you could just enter the phone in fb search and it would spit out the name + fb link even for private profiles.
Someone I knew scanned down a whole country's numbers in a couple of months (there was some rate limiting and that's about it) - and that guy just did it for fun. I'm sure there were plenty of shady companies doing the same thing.
After a while FB started cracking down on this. They even admitted they knew about it for years. Can't find a link but IIRC that was 4-5 years ago.