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Comment by talon8635

16 hours ago

Doesn’t Google make it very hard to create an account tied to nothing (no phone or alt email)?

If you create it on a stock Pixel device the phone requirement gets dropped.

It's the SomethingAwful model: go to the store and find the cheapest Android phone from some prepaid company for :tenbux: then use it to set up your Google account during out-of-box-setup while on the store's free public WiFi (since Google OOBE allows free account creation without a number or existing email), then toss the phone in a drawer afterwards.

"Hope ya got ten bucks!"

(I got a random 5G Moto phone for ~$10 on clearance and it was an absolute shitter of a phone full of garbage packed in malware, but after cleaning and debloating as much as I can, it's at least a nifty toy to poke at Termux or something.)

  • The "Twitter counter" to that is, "We've detected suspicious activity on your account. To continue, please verify your phone number."