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Not only is it not secure, it's not a constant for everyone. I moved countries and I am now locked out of my bank account abroad since they verify logins via O
by bszupnick 5y ago
Not only is it not secure, it's not a constant for everyone.
I moved countries and I am now locked out of my bank account abroad since they verify logins via OTP over SMS.
- njacobs5074 5y agoMaybe look into whether you can get a Skype number set up to receive the SMSs. Some countries/banks will work with this arrangement. But I feel your pain. It is very frustrating situation to be in.
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoWhy cancel your old phone number in that country when you still have a bank account there? I suggest a bank which doesn't suck, such as bunq.
- Ensorceled 5y agoMaybe they didn't know they needed a phone number to maintain access to the account? Let's not blame the victim here.
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoThe bank is at least equally at fault, if not more so.
- 2rsf 5y agoif you immigrate, like I did, but still have some pension funds or saving accounts in your home country. Why would I want a local phone line?
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoSo your bank can send you the SMS you need to sign in (which in itself indicates their security is poor).
- 2rsf 5y agomost banks don't support international numbers if that what you meant
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoNo, that's not what I meant.
- 2rsf 5y agowhat did you mean then?
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoBanks which rely on SMS 2FA should not be trusted with your money.
- spicybright 5y agoI would never think my phone # was the only proof of identity.
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoIf that's what your bank had been using during the login flow...
- snappieT 5y agoIt can be costly. I moved from Ireland to the US and kept my Irish number active - the cost was a €5 topup every 6 months. Going in reverse is much harder - a lot of the budget phone providers in the US don't have any roaming offering. Best I can tell, you really need to have an account with a real provider, and that realistically looks like $20/mo (Google Fi), 20x more expensive than the reverse.
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoThen it sounds like changing bank is a better answer for many.
- snappieT 5y agoThis oversimplifies the situation - if every US bank uses SMS and you want to retain a US bank, what do you do?
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y agoThat's such a huge "if" that an alternative immediately came to mind: TransferWise doesn't require a US phone number, but you can have a US account number with them.
- michael_vo 5y agoFor some countries (USA) you can forward your number to a google voice number and retain incoming sms. Call forwarding isn't possible to my knowledge.
- physicles 5y agoPorting my number to Google voice before moving abroad was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done (in hindsight), for this reason. I sometimes wonder why Google has kept it running for so long, when they’re so keen to kill off boring, under-performing products.
- artificialLimbs 5y agoI've signed up with voip.ms, which provides me a pay as you go sms number for basically $0/mo. since I only use it for auth.
- lazide 5y agoMany services go out of their way to detect and block the use of VoIP numbers for SMS auth :s
- artificialLimbs 5y agoWhat's the reasoning behind that? Maybe to prevent bots?
- toss1 5y agoI'd start with VOIP numbers being so easy to spoof... and move onto the entire telephone network being insanely insecure and unverified, despite decades of efforts to link people to telnos -- until they implement actual caller-recipient full verification, they've effectively got nothing.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago> until they implement actual caller-recipient full verification Is it even possible to do this at this point? I'd expect something like this to fundamentally change the way telephone networks work.
- toss1 5y agoNot sure how fundamental it is, e.g., is it fundamental to bar ad-hoc caller-ID functions and require displaying the actual number & name of the account (maybe allowing additional info also)? Telcos already pass on this info - how big a deal is it to transmit accurate data? But even if it is fundamental, such fundamental change is needed.