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Is it reasonable to *require* phone nr. when purchasing software?

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tomos:
I've added 'Give a fake number' to the Poll ;)

dr_andus:
One thing about fake numbers- sometimes they have to verify the purchase because of the credit card company.
-wraith808 (September 22, 2015, 06:26 PM)
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I think this might be the case in the UK as well. I suspect phone numbers and email addresses get tied to your physical address and your credit card number, in the name of identity fraud detection or something... Which is not to say that they are not harvested for direct marketing along the way somewhere. Unfortunately in the UK even the local government sells voter registration data, which is just shameful.

wraith808:
One thing about fake numbers- sometimes they have to verify the purchase because of the credit card company.
-wraith808 (September 22, 2015, 06:26 PM)
--- End quote ---

I think this might be the case in the UK as well. I suspect phone numbers and email addresses get tied to your physical address and your credit card number, in the name of identity fraud detection or something... Which is not to say that they are not harvested for direct marketing along the way somewhere. Unfortunately in the UK even the local government sells voter registration data, which is just shameful.
-dr_andus (September 23, 2015, 05:04 AM)
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I've actually had the credit card company contact me based off of a purchase to make sure it's me.  My card hasn't been stolen... but it gives me a measure of peace to know that they do that.

Innuendo:
Most payment processors merely want the phone number as a way to be able to contact you if something goes wrong with the payment. There's really nothing nefarious going on, but it is kind of a hold-over from the days before everyone had text messaging and email.

I do know at one point credit card processors would check your phone number with the bank to verify identities, but I don't think they do that so much anymore and it's just a legacy entry on forms.

I've had the same phone number for over a decade & have been buying things on the internet for way longer than that. I've always given my real phone number and never had anything ever come of it. Having said that, though, I do live in a country (United States) that has a national Do Not Call list for telemarketers and live in a state that has an even stricter state-wide Do Not Call list.

I'll get an 'unwanted' call from a telemarketer maybe once every four months or so....just because some people refuse to play by the rules.

tomos:
I'll get an 'unwanted' call from a telemarketer maybe once every four months or so....just because some people refuse to play by the rules.
-Innuendo (September 23, 2015, 07:38 AM)
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I never even get that much -  and would like to keep it that way :-\
I also know from experience that once some people get your number, they never give up. But I suppose that the payment processors hopefully wont be getting into the business of passing on your phone number...


I've actually had the credit card company contact me based off of a purchase to make sure it's me.  My card hasn't been stolen... but it gives me a measure of peace to know that they do that.
-wraith808 (September 23, 2015, 07:33 AM)
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I've had that too. I dont use the card much, and made a big purchase a while back. At first I thought it was someone trying to con me, which made for an interesting phonecall :-)

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