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Am I the only one who never gives out their real phone number? I give the same fake one to every single business that asks for it, including CC verification stu

Am I the only one who never gives out their real phone number? I give the same fake one to every single business that asks for it, including CC verification stuff on websites. Never had a problem, and really seems to cut down on junk calls...

ceejayoz 4y ago
Fake-fake, or Google Voice-fake? I'd be worried about being locked out at some point; I get asked to confirm I'm me via phone/SMS fairly regularly.
- spydum 4y ago
  I find many companies rejecting Google voice numbers, calling them VoIP services (which is kind of funny, most mobile is VoIP these days)
  - lelandfe 4y ago
    Ditto. Even worse, I've tried to sign up for some services which reject the VoIP number and then send that number spam anyway. This has happened with a concert ticketing service and a food delivery app now.
tootie 4y ago
I used to do this. Put a fake name and tel. Then I missed some important messages and had to explain what happened to customer service.
aliqot 4y ago
if you use the same fake one, then that is your number, its just pseudonymous. It does not matter what the info is, if it is the same often, it'll build a pattern on you.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Sure, but no one's gonna convincingly call you on it and say "hi I'm Hilton customer service, reaching out about your stay in LA on 9/17".
  - aliqot 4y ago
    You're thinking of the direct effects when you should be thinking about the tertiary effects. Your assertion is "I don't go around advertising that this is my BTC address, they'll never know it's mine"
- coremoff 4y ago
  does make me wonder about throwaway accounts (on reddit, for example); I wonder how many people regularly create them, but use predictable patterns doing so...
lotsofpulp 4y ago
And so if a hotel is overbooked, or otherwise has an issue that would be better addressed prior to arrival, they have no way of contacting you?
- scarface74 4y ago
  I stay in a lot of hotels. I’ve never once been called. They will send an email to my “hide my email” protected email address or once I am 24 hours from check in or during my stay, I communicate with them via chat on the app. On the other hand, I really don’t have a problem giving my real number to hotels, airlines or any other business that I deal with regularly.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    99% will not get called, but having worked in hotels, guests have to be contacted all the time. Maintenance issue, plumbing leak, dog is barking too loud, overbooking, room type change, and the list goes on. At franchised hotels in the US, which is almost all chain hotels, the employees at the front desk do not have the ability to email you, or even know your email address. The phone number is often the only way to reach you. Hilton does have the chat app, but I do not think it works for hotels trying to reach customers with time sensitive information.
    - phpisthebest 4y ago
      Ever since they got digital keys I do not even talk to the hotel front desk I am not worried about a 1% edge case
      - lotsofpulp 4y ago
        I also like digital keys and whisking myself to a room. But I would also rather know about my relocation (or any other issue) before I get to the hotel rather than after I get to the hotel. When I worked, we used to have to often change room types from rooms with 1 queen bed to a room with 2 full XL beds (full XL is 6 inches narrower than a queen). Of course, technically, this would modify a guest’s reservation and give them an inferior bed than the one they reserved, so we would go down the list of people who had reserved a room with 1 queen bed and ask if they were willing to change to a room with 2 full XL size beds, and as a thank you, offered a few thousand points. Obviously, all the single business travelers had no problem accepting a couple extra thousand points for a bed that was 6 less inches wide, but if they did not have a good phone number on the reservation, they were not offered.
Turing_Machine 4y ago
I have a burner phone that I never answer... only used for getting SMS confirmations and the like, and on silent or turned off altogether when I'm not expecting one.
reaperducer 4y ago
Never had a problem I do the same thing as you. But it's worth noting that you don't know that you've never had a problem, since nobody can contact you about one. I've only had problems that I know of three times. Once when a purchase from Ohio got mangled in shipping and returned to the company. It tried to contact me to let me know there was a delay, and when it couldn't get in touch with me, it put the order on hold. I found out about it when I called a couple of weeks later to ask what happened to my order. Once when something I ordered from overseas had trouble getting through customs. Again, I had to call to find out what happened. And once when I made a hotel reservation in Los Angeles. The hotel called to let me know that the upgrade I requested was available, and when it couldn't get me by phone it believed the transaction to be fraudulent and cancelled my reservation.

ceejayoz 4y ago

Fake-fake, or Google Voice-fake? I'd be worried about being locked out at some point; I get asked to confirm I'm me via phone/SMS fairly regularly.

spydum 4y ago
I find many companies rejecting Google voice numbers, calling them VoIP services (which is kind of funny, most mobile is VoIP these days)
- lelandfe 4y ago
  Ditto. Even worse, I've tried to sign up for some services which reject the VoIP number and then send that number spam anyway. This has happened with a concert ticketing service and a food delivery app now.

tootie 4y ago

I used to do this. Put a fake name and tel. Then I missed some important messages and had to explain what happened to customer service.

aliqot 4y ago

if you use the same fake one, then that is your number, its just pseudonymous. It does not matter what the info is, if it is the same often, it'll build a pattern on you.

ceejayoz 4y ago
Sure, but no one's gonna convincingly call you on it and say "hi I'm Hilton customer service, reaching out about your stay in LA on 9/17".
- aliqot 4y ago
  You're thinking of the direct effects when you should be thinking about the tertiary effects. Your assertion is "I don't go around advertising that this is my BTC address, they'll never know it's mine"
coremoff 4y ago
does make me wonder about throwaway accounts (on reddit, for example); I wonder how many people regularly create them, but use predictable patterns doing so...

lotsofpulp 4y ago

And so if a hotel is overbooked, or otherwise has an issue that would be better addressed prior to arrival, they have no way of contacting you?

scarface74 4y ago
I stay in a lot of hotels. I’ve never once been called. They will send an email to my “hide my email” protected email address or once I am 24 hours from check in or during my stay, I communicate with them via chat on the app. On the other hand, I really don’t have a problem giving my real number to hotels, airlines or any other business that I deal with regularly.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  99% will not get called, but having worked in hotels, guests have to be contacted all the time. Maintenance issue, plumbing leak, dog is barking too loud, overbooking, room type change, and the list goes on. At franchised hotels in the US, which is almost all chain hotels, the employees at the front desk do not have the ability to email you, or even know your email address. The phone number is often the only way to reach you. Hilton does have the chat app, but I do not think it works for hotels trying to reach customers with time sensitive information.
  - phpisthebest 4y ago
    Ever since they got digital keys I do not even talk to the hotel front desk I am not worried about a 1% edge case
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      I also like digital keys and whisking myself to a room. But I would also rather know about my relocation (or any other issue) before I get to the hotel rather than after I get to the hotel. When I worked, we used to have to often change room types from rooms with 1 queen bed to a room with 2 full XL beds (full XL is 6 inches narrower than a queen). Of course, technically, this would modify a guest’s reservation and give them an inferior bed than the one they reserved, so we would go down the list of people who had reserved a room with 1 queen bed and ask if they were willing to change to a room with 2 full XL size beds, and as a thank you, offered a few thousand points. Obviously, all the single business travelers had no problem accepting a couple extra thousand points for a bed that was 6 less inches wide, but if they did not have a good phone number on the reservation, they were not offered.

Turing_Machine 4y ago

I have a burner phone that I never answer... only used for getting SMS confirmations and the like, and on silent or turned off altogether when I'm not expecting one.

reaperducer 4y ago

Never had a problem I do the same thing as you. But it's worth noting that you don't know that you've never had a problem, since nobody can contact you about one. I've only had problems that I know of three times. Once when a purchase from Ohio got mangled in shipping and returned to the company. It tried to contact me to let me know there was a delay, and when it couldn't get in touch with me, it put the order on hold. I found out about it when I called a couple of weeks later to ask what happened to my order. Once when something I ordered from overseas had trouble getting through customs. Again, I had to call to find out what happened. And once when I made a hotel reservation in Los Angeles. The hotel called to let me know that the upgrade I requested was available, and when it couldn't get me by phone it believed the transaction to be fraudulent and cancelled my reservation.