this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Hi, there's this situation i currently have with discord support, that they refuse to delete my phone number from my account. Basically every time i try to manually remove it, my account gets locked up until i add another phone number in order to continue accessing the service, "for security reasons" with no option for email verification (of course).

I contacted the support team asking for clarifications and if they could remove the phone number and, in short, they said that they couldn't do that since my account was flagged somehow, and that they won't remove the phone verification...

(their email)

Now, what are your opinions about this? Should i use a free voip number site in order to replace my real phone number with the fake one? My concern is that i don't know who could own that number so i don't know if it's safe to trust it, and i'm not willing to spend any money for this

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[–] Vlyn@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you want to use Discord nowadays you need a valid phone number, that's it.

Either you agree with it and use their service, or you don't and delete your account with all your data.

They use this to battle spam accounts (with quite some success, been over a year since I've been contacted by scammers), there is no good way around it.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you want to use Discord nowadays you need a valid phone number, that’s it.

No you don't. I can use it just fine without a phone number added.

[–] Gush@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you just have to manage to not let your account flagged, but when that happens (and it will) then it's either voip number or your real phone number

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

you just have to manage to not let your account flagged

That seems to be very easy. I've been using it for over half a decade, am a member on dozens of very different servers, interacted with hundreds of people, wrote tens of thousands of messages - I actually checked all those numbers - and participated in discussions about all kinds of topics. My assumption is that the threshold for this sort of flag is set really high. Either that or it's different based on where you live, maybe based on laws or politics or such.

[–] Vlyn@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's an old account then. New ones don't work without. And at some point they suddenly force you to add a number out of nowhere.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

New accounts work perfectly fine without a phone number as well. Only certain servers require one. It's an option in servers settings. It could also be a regional thing.

Image

It's interesting how the truth gets downvoted while misleading information gets upvoted. Apparently people like randomly clicking buttons without verifying anything. That seems like it could be really harmful. Since votes are public information, maybe there's a way to play around with that.

[–] Vlyn@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You don't get it. Server settings are only one part of it, Discord also has their own account wide policies.

For example I had a second account I used on Discord. Verified email, used it for years on and off every now and then. Last time I tried to login? No longer possible, I need to add a valid phone number and verify it. I couldn't even get back into the account at all!

No way around it, if Discord flags your account for whatever reason they log you out and force you to add a phone number. All it might take is you pressing logout once and next time you try to login you're blocked. If even that.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah so just to clarify I totally believe you when you say that an account can technically get flagged. However, I don't believe that "New ones don’t work without [a phone number]" and I also don't believe that every account will be flagged eventually like the other commenter mentioned.

Remember, the initial comment I questioned was saying that "If you want to use Discord nowadays you need a valid phone number".

[–] Vlyn@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But you can easily test this yourself: Go and try to create a new Discord account without a phone number. Then try to use it.

I couldn't, Discord immediately forces me to add a phone number on login.

Maybe it's regional? Or they have different behavior based on your email address provider?

I gave up on having a second account.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

But you can easily test this yourself: Go and try to create a new Discord account without a phone number. Then try to use it.

I did and I could use it.

Maybe it’s regional? Or they have different behavior based on your email address provider?

Yeah or maybe it's based on a cookie or IP ranges or other forms of tracking.