Quote from: SteveInWA on November 29, 2018, 06:54:39 PM
Quote from: Western on November 29, 2018, 05:45:56 PM
CallCentric has been great for 4 years
But this is frustrating. Why would we be getting these virtual numbers if not to use them with services that do verification?
Does anyone know what the impetus for this change was? Cost, regulatory...?
I'm not going to buy another physical cell phone
Hunh? What do you mean? You can't use their FREE numbers to receive text messages, but you can certainly use them to receive telephone calls, regardless of the caller.
No, it is not "regardless of caller", as the original post says, Callcentric blocks calls from security verification services (though only the ones they know about - I've had some more obscure ones like my work paycheck system call through fine). This is not part of the usual call blocking system they have available to users, they block these numbers before the user can do anything about it. It is part of their policy.
Try it yourself if you have Callcentric. Have eBay or WhatsApp or another popular service call you to verify your identity with 2-pass authentication. The call will not go through. The next time you log in to the Callcentric dashboard, a big bulletin message will appear at the top of the site that says "We're sorry but our Free Phone Numbers CANNOT be used for verification purposes with third-party services, such as: WhatsApp, Craigslist, Ebay, etc... Inbound calls to our Free Phone Numbers from third-party verification numbers will be blocked."
In fact, its just the opposite of what you said - if you use a text message verification code, it will go through just fine. Its only the services that directly call with an automated voice system to give you verification codes that Callcentric will block (since texts will go directly to the GV number anyway so Callcentric has nothing to do with it). For most systems I've just started using the texting method instead but some only have a direct phone call as an option, and then I have to use a different phone or jump through hoops for the call to come through.
So it is legit to ask why they implemented this policy, as I'm pretty sure when I first started using them (purely for 911 and caller ID) that this was not the case.