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I'm not sure whether it's the reason T-Mobile is asking for it, but a number of countries have added identification requirements for mobile-phone services, due
by _delirium 11y ago
I'm not sure whether it's the reason T-Mobile is asking for it, but a number of countries have added identification requirements for mobile-phone services, due to pressure from law-enforcement agencies, who don't like the possibility that people can buy anonymous "burner" phones & SIMs. In Denmark nowadays nobody will sell you a SIM without tying it to a national ID number. Bank accounts have similar requirements, to combat money laundering and tax avoidance.
- ubernostrum 11y agoYeah, last year when traveling in Europe with a friend we had all sorts of trouble trying to get her a SIM card in Germany. They insisted they could only sell it if we provided the address of a German resident to tie the account to. A German-speaking friend helped us solve it (I still don't know exactly what he worked out with them), but it wasn't a pleasant experience. Especially since in France we literally just walked into an Orange shop, and I said, in my bad US-high-school French, "Nous voulons acheter une carte SIM", and they said "OK", quoted a price and that was that.
- MichaelGG 11y agoYeah I've run into that. End up finding locals to buy phones for me. In this case (~2006) T-Mobile was insisting that American Express would not process my charge if T-Mobile didn't submit my SSN along with the charge. Which is obviously just false (Amex verified this to me). A funnier thing I've seen in Guatemala is that many places will ask you to write your phone number down on the CC voucher. They say it's for "security", as if someone using a stolen card would provide their real number. They don't verify the number as they just take it along with the signature, they just make a big fuss to get something written down.