Aliexpress wants to extort my mobile phone number (under the disguise of verification). Any ideas?

Hi all,

when Aliexpress accepted Paypal I opened an Ali-account. I had since bought 3 times from Sofirn and 2 times some PAM2803, that’s been all.

Now they locked my account, saying:

“We have noticed an unusual activity in your account. This might be because you tried to sign in from another location or device. To protect your account we have temporarily locked it. To regain access, please proceed with the below verification process.”

Only verification method is by cell phone.

First, the statement from Ali is a blatant lie. I used the same location and same computer ever since. I hate being taken for a fool so obviously.
Second, they will not get my phone number to spam me like they do with the email. No way.

So, any workaround?
Yeah, I can get me a cheap throwaway number. That would be the last resort.
Any better way?

You did use the same computer, but maybe somebody tried login in to your account from a different location. I do think they have legit reason so verify your account by phone number.

You can get a free phone number from Google Voice that might be appropriate for such use.

If somebody hacked my account, a mobile phone number from my country doesn’t verify anything for them. They want to send me a text on my phone with a code I have to type into the website. Any hacker could provide that, there’s no ‘verification’ in that.

So they just want my phone number for reasons they lie about. Err, nope.

1 Thank

I had the same issue when I deleted cookies and once when I re-installed my OS (I use Mac OS). Gave them my number and they send you a one-time code. Nothing happened otherwise, no calls or texts.

Here in the UK many company’s use mobile phone verification, Banks, PayPal, Amazon, etc.

If a company like ALiExpress really wanted your phone number they could find it, they most likely have your name, address, IP, etc. and it should be on your PayPal details which would be visible to them.

AliExpress have had my number for years and I’ve not had any issues come of it.

In fact it has been a benefit because a few times when there have been issues with packages the post office have been able to phone me, I’ve even had a couple times where a package was delivered to the wrong address and luckily the person that received it was able to phone me and arrange for me to collect it.

I suppose you need to give your phone number to google to use that?

Don’t they already need your phone number to deliver international packages?

This one can be fake.

Apparently not. I’m deaf, so there’s no point for me. I’ve been putting zeroes in for my phone number for years.

I will warn you that the reason they give for wanting the number is in case there are problems en route - if customs need to check something with you, for example, so not providing it could theoretically mean a package going missing or being returned to sender. That implies that in the vast majority of cases, they’ll never need it or use it.

To the best of my knowledge, there’s never been a problem with a package of mine not having a valid phone number on it. Your mileage may vary, especially if you’re not in the UK. UK customs are notorious for leaking like a sieve - the EU is suing them for failing to properly tax Chinese-made shoes right now - whereas places like Germany are much stricter.

Top tip: if the website won’t let you put in all zeroes, try your country code, followed by your local area code, followed by zeroes to the right number of digits :slight_smile: UK example: +44 1273 000 000.

Thanks for your comments.
For starters it’s good to know that they seem to not spam your phone.

No, they don’t need a phone number to fulfil orders. I order stuff from China/HK since the fall of 2012 and I never gave my cell phone number. When they insist, they get a number that ends with –6789. :wink: The parcels do keep coming.

Yet I will not give away my mobile number, I like privacy in this segment of my life. They can have my landline number anytime when they want to actually ‘call’ me…

Ok, it seems there is no other option for their ‘validation’ than a mobile phone number.

I just created a new Ali account.

I use a vpn, so when I start getting directed to, say, amazon.co.uk instead of amazon.com, I know it connected to somewhere in the UK. Or Ireland, or Nevada, or Joisey, whatever.

On AX, all I ever had to do was a swipe-this-bar-with-the-mouse thing and get verified… somehow. Forgot exactly what. But never had to give a phonumber of any kind.

Dunno if that “helps” any, but…