Larry said. . . . . I love messing with those thieves. Except when it's 2am here. ************************I also have a Las Vegas phone number (19 years) mine is through Ooma Telo. Full telephone features, so it set to voice mail, no more ringing phone at 2 am.I get a list of all calls to that number even if they don't leave a message. At my convenience I'll dial that hangup number in the middle of their night time. If it's spam instead of voicemail, I'll set their number for the message: The number you have called is no longer in service. -@Enzyte Bob
I had ooma in the US...very good deal. Coming over here I just brought our magicJack with my 25-year-old landline number ported over. The only calls I get on it are from a few friends, the Republican National Committee and Trump re-election for donations (sorry), scammers and car warranty extension companies. Usually, the latter come in in the early hours. Sometimes I am still awake but depending on the number I ignore them or just answer and stay silent (never answering them vocally). Of course, they don't like that because it wastes their time. I do use it more to call out to the banks, credit union, a friend or two who does not use messenger or WhatsApp for phone calls and sometimes department stores my wife orders from. The big value here for magicJack is our calling out. I find it is not reliable for most texts sent by 2FA because many of those do not accept WIFI numbers for sending texts; it is not really a security issue but a technical issue; their texting program does not accept Wi-Fi number because they happened to be set up for landline only. I expect that will change as landline use rapidly decreases in the USA, however, even there, using phone number texting as 2FA may disappear before that happens. The good news for right now is that Google voice does accept the 2FA texts in all cases. I have no idea why it does because it is also WIFI but perhaps it masks itself at landline for user convenience, who knows? You need a US phone number to register for google voice (it is not released for the Philippines) so what I did for registration was 1) Turn on my VPN for a US server and 2) Register using my old landline ported to magicJack. Some people say that nobody can register for google voice outside the USA but they are wrong; I was able to do it in the manner described and I use it for all 2FA. However, when I can, I switch to other 2FA options like using authenticators and passkeys. More and more entities are doing that like ID.me and SSA who accepts ID.me. A few like SSA still send emails for 2FA but I don't expect that to continue much longer. These new 2FA methods do not really discriminate based on where your phone is located, they only care that it is your phone, and you together are communicating with, and they assume that only you have control of your phone. What they do is communicate to your phone by secure methods to ensure they have your actual phone, not your phone number or email address. I especially like using the Microsoft authenticator but google has their own and so does IE.me. As this becomes more adopted, a USA phone number will no longer be necessary for 2FA and that will be a good thing...no more bringing a phone with a T-Mobile SIM and international plan (which they eventually take away anyway, once they know you live outside the USA permanently). Some of the new 2FA also use a pin stored in your phone. Your authenticator will need a fingerprint or pin to access it. Personally, I think the pin (4 digits) is weak security (although it is stored on your phone) but as long as I can get authenticated, I will not complain.
Phones and Internet in the Philippines
Lifestyle in the Philippines
Getting married in the Philippines
Dating in the Philippines
Obtaining a Philippines driving licence
Leisure activities in the Philippines
Choosing your neighbourhood in Manila
Diversity and inclusion in the Philippines
