Ask HN: Why are so many services rejecting Google Voice numbers for signups?

5•electric_muse•3h ago

I’ve noticed that more and more companies refuse to accept Google Voice numbers when creating accounts.

My company's main line is a Google Voice that forwards to my cell; I never give out my cell. But this is preventing me from using some services and products (Vercel, DocuSign, etc.)

I’m curious about the reasons behind this. Is it primarily technical (spam prevention, deliverability issues), business-driven (carriers pushing back on VoIP), or just an easy way to block disposable accounts? Is something more dystopian going on, like some kind of behind-the-scenes lookup of my "true" info if I provide my cell?

Also, if anyone has insight into how companies technically detect and filter VoIP numbers at scale, I’d love to understand that side too. E.g. what lookup info via Twilio causes a number to get rejected? I assume it is the 'type' from Twilio Line Type Intelligence (or equivalent)?

https://www.twilio.com/docs/lookup/v2-api/line-type-intelligence

Comments

toomuchtodo•3h ago

Fraud potential.

electric_muse•2h ago

of course - but aren't there valid voip users out there? or should we just consider all voip users as not worth serving?

toomuchtodo•2h ago

I run security at a fintech, we reject voip phone numbers due to proven fraud activity. The org has made the business decision based on historical fraud data, what others do is a risk management decision. Lots of customers out there, not a lot who will leave if you reject voip numbers, in my experience. The goal is not serving as many customers as possible, it’s about operating at the intersection of risk appetite and profitability.

We can’t have nice things because of humans in the aggregate. My apologies. It’s certainly not personal.

electric_muse•2h ago

I have a side project that uses Twilio. Probably going to have to face this dragon at some point and go down the same risk assessment.

What values for Twilio line type intel do you block? (or equivalent values if you don't use Twilio)

For example, is it just `nonFixedVoip` that should get the boot? Or are `fixedVoip` also spammy?

toomuchtodo•2h ago

https://risk.lexisnexis.com/products/phone-intelligence

https://ekata.com/solutions/phone-intelligence-api/

electric_muse•1h ago

Thanks! I’ll look into these. Thought it was simpler lookup of metadata, but these seem like robust offerings that make sense for even more protection.

mathiaspoint•2h ago

We'd all be better off with no phones at all.

SilverElfin•53m ago

What if someone wants to have different phone numbers for security or privacy purposes. What options are there that wouldn’t get caught up in this?

ratelimitsteve•2h ago

it's a calculation - how much exposure to fraud does google voice net you, and how much additional revenue. if the math maths such that supporting google voice loses money, you don't support google voice. this idea that it somehow reflects on the value or character of voip customers in general is expanding beyond the factors that actually influence the decision.

jas0n•2h ago

Same as VPNs. Sure, there are plenty of legit reasons to use one (just line a VoIP line) but there are enough people using them for illicit reasons that companies will ban traffic.

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