Cheap Bots for Sale: Cambridge Study Reveals SMS Verification Bypassed for Just 8 Cents
One of the key defensive barriers against the creation of fake online accounts has proven alarmingly fragile—capable of being bypassed for just a few cents. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found that SMS-based identity verification, widely used by social networks and other online services, can be circumvented at scale through the use of temporary phone numbers readily available on the gray market.
Phone number verification is commonly regarded as a cornerstone of fake-account prevention. It relies on sending an activation code to a mobile number, ostensibly ensuring the authenticity of the user. Yet in their study, the researchers examined four popular services—SMSActivate, 5Sim, SMShub, and SMSPVA—that offer disposable numbers at prices ranging from 10 to 30 cents per activation. In some cases, costs dipped below 10 cents, particularly for numbers from the United Kingdom, Russia, and Indonesia. The most expensive options were numbers from Japan and Australia, priced at up to $5 and $3, respectively.
Some of these services proved strikingly effective. In a number of tests, the researchers were able to create accounts without interruption, aided by the fact that verification requirements vary widely across platforms. WhatsApp, for instance, was notably more stringent, with activation costing around $3. By contrast, the social network X charged roughly eight times less—about eight cents. According to one of the study’s authors, this disparity may reflect comparatively weaker moderation on X than on other platforms.
WhatsApp has since commented on the findings, stating that it welcomes research into such services and emphasizing that, beyond phone numbers, it employs additional technical and behavioral signals to detect abuse. Representatives of X did not respond to requests for comment. One provider, SMSPVA, asserted that it operates legally, complies with all regulations, and serves not only testers but also privacy-conscious users. The remaining platforms declined to comment.
The study was accompanied by an online dashboard that visually maps the prices of disposable phone numbers by country and platform. According to one peer reviewer of the research, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, the published data underscore the importance of the economic dimension of disinformation: understanding the cost of bypassing safeguards is essential to assessing the true scale of the threat.
Taken together, the findings suggest that even basic authentication measures long considered sufficiently robust no longer provide an adequate defense against the массовое creation of fake accounts and the spread of disinformation. The cost of circumventing these protections is so low that malicious actors can operate with virtually no economic constraints.
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