Gmail also asks for a mobile phone number supposedly for verification purposes. I had already provided one when I obtained a google voice number 4 or 5 years ago. So far I haven't experienced any solicitations.
John On Dec 24, 2013, at 10:51 AM, "Stephen J Gewirtz" <gewi...@bellatlantic.net> wrote: > I just tried to reinstate an old Yahoo email account that I have not accessed > for ages. It told me I needed to give a mobile phone number. At that point, > I quit trying to recreate my account. > > I tried to recreate my account because my wife had suddenly lost access to > her Yahoo email account. I got emails (since she had given my email as an > emergency contact) telling her to verify her account. It turned out I think > that what they wanted was to verify her mobile phone number. This they did, > and hopefully her Yahoo email account will work again. > > Big Brother is watching! My guess is that Yahoo wants to sell mobile phone > numbers to advertisers. And I have now twice received calls soliciting money > on my cell phone, so I know that that is the next big thing, especially to > reach the younger folk who do not have landlines. It was illegal to > telemarket to a cell phone, but maybe that is changing. And I get enough > junk telemarketers on my landline, especially the phishing calls telling me I > can get a better rate on my credit card and ones trying to market emergency > call devices to seniors. > > Big Brother is not necessarily the government. We are very much seeing how > Google, Facebook, Amazon and Yahoo track us. > > Steve > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > discuss...@charlesvillage.info > http://charlesvillage.info/mailman/listinfo/discussion_charlesvillage.info _______________________________________________ Chat mailing list Chat@charlesvillage.info http://charlesvillage.info/mailman/listinfo/chat_charlesvillage.info archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/chat@charlesvillage.info/