Image: Cathryn Virginia
Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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On its website, 5SIM says “Today a lot of sites require SMS verification code for registration account. If you do not want to use your personal phone number to verify or activate account, use phone number 5SIM. Thus, there is no need for a SIM card in your mobile phone, only need access to the Internet.” Users can select phone numbers from all over the world.Various YouTube videos uploaded by the company explain how people can use its service explicitly for getting through the SMS verification stage of various sites. The videos include instructions specifically on PayPal, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and dating site Plenty of Fish.Instagram told Motherboard it is concerned by sites that suggest people can use services to bypass Instagram’s measures to then abuse the platform. Instagram said it uses SMS verification to prevent the creation of fake accounts and to make account recovery possible.Do you know about any other similar virtual phone companies? Do you work for one? We'd love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.
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