On: Claude Opus 4.1

[seneca]

Is there a way to sign up for Claude code that doesn't involve verifying a phone number with Anthropic? They don't even accept Google Voice numbers.

Maybe I'm out of touch, but I'm not handing out my phone number to sign up for random SaaS tools.

[cma → seneca]

It's maybe the leading subscription based tool in our field, not a random SaaS tool.

[what → cma]

They have zero need for a phone number.

[senko → what]

There are a lot of fraudsters out there who will happily create thousands of accounts with valid CCs that will fail on first actual charge.[0]

I wouldn't be surprised if asking for a phone number lowers the fraud rate enough to compensate for the added friction.

[0] Incidentally, this is also why many AI API providers ask for your money upfront (buy credits) unless you're big enough and/or have existing relationship with them.

[yencabulator → senko]

Sounds like a trivial fix even for monthly billing, just bill at the start of the month not at the end.

[eddythompson80 → what]

Come on now. You're about to run their cli and let it send any random file on your machine to their API intentionally. Trust them a little.

[seneca → cma]

Sure, no contest on that. They still don't need my phone number.

[tagami → seneca]

use a burner