To be fair, this is a risk even with a "legitimate" number. How do you know whether the previous owner did anything nefarious with it before it was recycled and

To be fair, this is a risk even with a "legitimate" number. How do you know whether the previous owner did anything nefarious with it before it was recycled and assigned to you? Of course, the real solution is to remove the leverage Google has on you so that a ban is no longer a problem.