[OT] Nick's being an ass again (ok, *way* OT)

[Vladimir Panteleev]

On Sun, 09 Oct 2011 02:56:34 +0300, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:

> [snip rant]

I believe the reason why Google has started requiring phone numbers was to  
curb usage of its free services by spammers. Captchas aren't cutting it  
any more, when you can get people in developing countries to solve  
thousands of captchas for a few dollars.

I've recently started getting spam from random people who have e-mailed me  
in the past. I guess spammers have intensified efforts to hack into  
peoples' mail accounts, which Gmail's spam filter trusts, and start  
sending spam from them. Perhaps that's what happened in your case?

If you have a Gmail account you have access to, you can send yourself an  
invite. I believe that bypasses phone validation, since it establishes a  
trust relationship between the two accounts. Alternatively you could post  
a non-Gmail address here, and me or someone else could send you an invite.

By the way, if you think it you got it hard - Google requires the same  
phone number validation for my country, and yet does not support phone  
validation for my country. No Gmail for Moldova :(

-- 
Best regards,
  Vladimir                            mailto:vladimir at thecybershadow.net