- Mar 10, 2022
- 136
- 78
Hi BHW,
I wanted to share my expertise in a particular area by explaining from a technical perspective how an SMS verification service works to enable you to potentially start your own.
Lets start by explaining how you are able to send and receive an SMS from your personal mobile device. Your personal cell phone contains a piece of hardware called a modem or a module. For example, the Google Pixel 6 phone contains the Samsung Shannon A5123 5G Modem according to google search. In order for your personal cell phone, or any "phone" to connect to a nearby cell phone tower it needs to have a modem inside of it. The modem is responsible for connecting to the tower and sending/receiving signals on the electromagnetic spectrum. An important note here is that older modems may not support newer bandwidths or infrastructure, and what I mean by this is that a 2G or 3G modem will not necessarily work on a 4G network or may work but lack additional features/capabilities.
You also need a SIM card inside your phone because a SIM card contains the information about which mobile phone provider you are a subscriber on, and includes information about what your phone number is, etc... For example, if you have a T-Mobile SIM card in your phone then you are a T-Mobile subscriber because you pay to be one and they enable you to send/receive SMS because you pay your bills on time every month.
Sound easy enough right, 1 phone or "device" with a modem and 1 SIM card for that device with an ACTIVE subscription from a mobile phone provider.
Lets go through a couple examples on why this works for the average person.
The average person generally only needs to make one account on a website, for example he/she may need to create 1 google account, 1 dating profile, a few social media accounts, and 1 online auction account. This phone number will suffice for this person for many years as they have their friends/family saved as contacts and they are well behaved, meaning they do not have the accounts banned for one reason or another. In fact, this is the way the world is supposed to work from the perspective of the websites/apps with some minor exceptions.
The non-average person or internet savvy marketer may find themselves in a situation where they need multiple social media accounts for some reason. That reason could become apparent by browsing the threads on this forum, however I won't go into details here. Lets say we need to create 200 dating profiles all on the same app or website. Isn't it obvious why this becomes a problem relatively quickly? If a dating app requires you to login/register using your phone number this means that you may only have a single dating profile at a time. If you wish to have 200 dating profiles this means you need 200 phone numbers, which means you need 200 SIM cards, and if you want to connect and operate the dating profiles concurrently you need to have 200 modems as mentioned above.
You will find many threads on this forums discussing proxies, fingerprinting, multi browsers etc... Again I won't go into those but these things all exist to solve the problem of logging into or registering multiple accounts all from the same piece of hardware. The example here would be if someone has 200 SIM cards and they spent all day long physically removing a SIM card and inserting a new one and waiting for the cell phone tower to connect to the modem.
Screw all that, we need to be able to do better if we want to make any money.
But, I need to cover one other important piece of information before continuing, and that involves explaining the difference between a VOIP number and a NON-VOIP number.
From CHATGPT:
A VOIP (Voice over IP) number operates over the internet and isn't tied to a specific physical location or SIM card, making it more flexible and often cheaper for calls and messaging. A non-VOIP (traditional) number is assigned by a mobile carrier or landline provider, linked to a SIM card or physical line, and generally offers better reliability and SMS verification compatibility.
Why is this important? Because these websites and apps have the ability to determine if the phone number you are registering with is a VOIP number or not and in many cases VOIP numbers are not allowed. These means we AGAIN need physical SIMs and physical modems for our devices.
I will now explain how SMS verification services actually work, at least from my own personal knowledge and experience with the subject. SMS verification services (good ones) partner with MVNOs (mobile virtual network operator) to purchase SIM cards in bulk at a discounted rate. An example of an MNVO is mint mobile with Ryan Reynolds as the face, silly commercials etc..
Generally SIM card fees are broken down into 3 major fees:
1. Activation Fee
2. Monthly subscriber fee
3. Number change fee
A phone number can be changed for some mobile networks without needing to physically change the SIM card from the device, and other networks it cannot.
So, step 1 is to find an MVNO, google local MVNOs, message people on BHW, search google and chatGPT. Contact people on linked IN and ASK... this is how I did it I just called/emailed and asked questions that were hard to ask.
Now, we have 1000 SIM cards and we are paying out the rear to keep them monthly, but they are totally USELESS without 1000 phones. But wouldn't 1000 phones be insanely expensive? The answer is YES 1000 phones is unrealistic and not a good business decision. Whats the alternative? Well, lucky for you and I we have some really smart people who have invented SMS Gateways or SIMBANKs. SMS gateways hold up to 500 or more SIM cards all at once. Generally speaking when you look at an SMS gateway you will find something called ports/SIMS.
Ports - the number of SIM cards that can be connected to the cell phone tower all at the same time
SIMS - the total number of SIM cards the device can hold
For example, if you have a 100 port, 1000 SIM sms gateway you can put in 1000 SIM cards, but only 100 can be actively connected to a cell phone tower at one time. Why, well because the gateway only has 100 MODEMS as we mentioned above. BTW, the savviest among us can buy their own modems and SIM readers and solder/build their own gateway.
Googling SMS gateway will quickly land you in tons of search results that you can further research and explore on your own time.
Great, now we purchased 1000 SIMs, and 1 SMS gateway and we plugged all the SIMs physically into the gateway and after clicking around inside the SMS gateway software and changing some settings we can see all our 100 modems are connected to towers and 100 phone numbers are receiving sms messages like we expected. This is all fine and good, but the problem with this is that its sitting in our living room and every time we want to check for a new SMS we need to use the sms gateway software that is on the PC connected to the gateway.
Again, lucky for us the inventors/manufactures of these gateways provide API access or in layman's terms they provide a way to write code on a separate computer that communicates over the internal network (LAN) or external network (internet) to retrieve incoming SMS messages off the sms gateway.
Honestly its getting late and my fingers are starting to hurt from typing so I'll try to wrap up in the next paragraph or so.
1. Find an MVNO partner and buy SIM cards from them
2. Find an SMS gateway provider and buy gateways from them
3. Build a website or app that your customers can use
4. Find a payment processor (credit card, paypal, or crypto)
5. Build a backend code base
The workflow for the business is as follows... customers find your website via marketing. They have access to an online dashboard where they can deposit credits using a payment platform of your choice. They can then rent a number from you, and when they click to rent the number from you on the front-end of the website the back-end of your website communicates with your SMS gateway to activate a new SIM card and also communicates with your MVNO in case a new number or something is needed.
Anyways, I know I summarized the end quickly, but this is the blueprint. There are roadbumps, and you need expertise. For example, maybe you don't know how to write code then you need to use chatGPT, or find a mentor, or hire a freelancer to help.
But let me explain to you the absolute beauty of this setup. You are providing real SIM cards to people who need them as a middleman. You are a middleman, what does that mean? That means that you can filter which messages the customer receives. Why is that a good thing? Because then you can sell your services on a per website/app basis. A customer needs a number for Tinder? Great, you only forward SMS codes to that customer that come from Tinder because you see everything first!
I'll try to answer as many questions as possible in the comments, I'll even get into specifics where I'm allowed to.. but I won't recommend any specific vendors, manufacturers, or anything else as I just wanted to help people not make any referrals off this post.
I wanted to share my expertise in a particular area by explaining from a technical perspective how an SMS verification service works to enable you to potentially start your own.
Lets start by explaining how you are able to send and receive an SMS from your personal mobile device. Your personal cell phone contains a piece of hardware called a modem or a module. For example, the Google Pixel 6 phone contains the Samsung Shannon A5123 5G Modem according to google search. In order for your personal cell phone, or any "phone" to connect to a nearby cell phone tower it needs to have a modem inside of it. The modem is responsible for connecting to the tower and sending/receiving signals on the electromagnetic spectrum. An important note here is that older modems may not support newer bandwidths or infrastructure, and what I mean by this is that a 2G or 3G modem will not necessarily work on a 4G network or may work but lack additional features/capabilities.
You also need a SIM card inside your phone because a SIM card contains the information about which mobile phone provider you are a subscriber on, and includes information about what your phone number is, etc... For example, if you have a T-Mobile SIM card in your phone then you are a T-Mobile subscriber because you pay to be one and they enable you to send/receive SMS because you pay your bills on time every month.
Sound easy enough right, 1 phone or "device" with a modem and 1 SIM card for that device with an ACTIVE subscription from a mobile phone provider.
Lets go through a couple examples on why this works for the average person.
The average person generally only needs to make one account on a website, for example he/she may need to create 1 google account, 1 dating profile, a few social media accounts, and 1 online auction account. This phone number will suffice for this person for many years as they have their friends/family saved as contacts and they are well behaved, meaning they do not have the accounts banned for one reason or another. In fact, this is the way the world is supposed to work from the perspective of the websites/apps with some minor exceptions.
The non-average person or internet savvy marketer may find themselves in a situation where they need multiple social media accounts for some reason. That reason could become apparent by browsing the threads on this forum, however I won't go into details here. Lets say we need to create 200 dating profiles all on the same app or website. Isn't it obvious why this becomes a problem relatively quickly? If a dating app requires you to login/register using your phone number this means that you may only have a single dating profile at a time. If you wish to have 200 dating profiles this means you need 200 phone numbers, which means you need 200 SIM cards, and if you want to connect and operate the dating profiles concurrently you need to have 200 modems as mentioned above.
You will find many threads on this forums discussing proxies, fingerprinting, multi browsers etc... Again I won't go into those but these things all exist to solve the problem of logging into or registering multiple accounts all from the same piece of hardware. The example here would be if someone has 200 SIM cards and they spent all day long physically removing a SIM card and inserting a new one and waiting for the cell phone tower to connect to the modem.
Screw all that, we need to be able to do better if we want to make any money.
But, I need to cover one other important piece of information before continuing, and that involves explaining the difference between a VOIP number and a NON-VOIP number.
From CHATGPT:
A VOIP (Voice over IP) number operates over the internet and isn't tied to a specific physical location or SIM card, making it more flexible and often cheaper for calls and messaging. A non-VOIP (traditional) number is assigned by a mobile carrier or landline provider, linked to a SIM card or physical line, and generally offers better reliability and SMS verification compatibility.
Why is this important? Because these websites and apps have the ability to determine if the phone number you are registering with is a VOIP number or not and in many cases VOIP numbers are not allowed. These means we AGAIN need physical SIMs and physical modems for our devices.
I will now explain how SMS verification services actually work, at least from my own personal knowledge and experience with the subject. SMS verification services (good ones) partner with MVNOs (mobile virtual network operator) to purchase SIM cards in bulk at a discounted rate. An example of an MNVO is mint mobile with Ryan Reynolds as the face, silly commercials etc..
Generally SIM card fees are broken down into 3 major fees:
1. Activation Fee
2. Monthly subscriber fee
3. Number change fee
A phone number can be changed for some mobile networks without needing to physically change the SIM card from the device, and other networks it cannot.
So, step 1 is to find an MVNO, google local MVNOs, message people on BHW, search google and chatGPT. Contact people on linked IN and ASK... this is how I did it I just called/emailed and asked questions that were hard to ask.
Now, we have 1000 SIM cards and we are paying out the rear to keep them monthly, but they are totally USELESS without 1000 phones. But wouldn't 1000 phones be insanely expensive? The answer is YES 1000 phones is unrealistic and not a good business decision. Whats the alternative? Well, lucky for you and I we have some really smart people who have invented SMS Gateways or SIMBANKs. SMS gateways hold up to 500 or more SIM cards all at once. Generally speaking when you look at an SMS gateway you will find something called ports/SIMS.
Ports - the number of SIM cards that can be connected to the cell phone tower all at the same time
SIMS - the total number of SIM cards the device can hold
For example, if you have a 100 port, 1000 SIM sms gateway you can put in 1000 SIM cards, but only 100 can be actively connected to a cell phone tower at one time. Why, well because the gateway only has 100 MODEMS as we mentioned above. BTW, the savviest among us can buy their own modems and SIM readers and solder/build their own gateway.
Googling SMS gateway will quickly land you in tons of search results that you can further research and explore on your own time.
Great, now we purchased 1000 SIMs, and 1 SMS gateway and we plugged all the SIMs physically into the gateway and after clicking around inside the SMS gateway software and changing some settings we can see all our 100 modems are connected to towers and 100 phone numbers are receiving sms messages like we expected. This is all fine and good, but the problem with this is that its sitting in our living room and every time we want to check for a new SMS we need to use the sms gateway software that is on the PC connected to the gateway.
Again, lucky for us the inventors/manufactures of these gateways provide API access or in layman's terms they provide a way to write code on a separate computer that communicates over the internal network (LAN) or external network (internet) to retrieve incoming SMS messages off the sms gateway.
Honestly its getting late and my fingers are starting to hurt from typing so I'll try to wrap up in the next paragraph or so.
1. Find an MVNO partner and buy SIM cards from them
2. Find an SMS gateway provider and buy gateways from them
3. Build a website or app that your customers can use
4. Find a payment processor (credit card, paypal, or crypto)
5. Build a backend code base
The workflow for the business is as follows... customers find your website via marketing. They have access to an online dashboard where they can deposit credits using a payment platform of your choice. They can then rent a number from you, and when they click to rent the number from you on the front-end of the website the back-end of your website communicates with your SMS gateway to activate a new SIM card and also communicates with your MVNO in case a new number or something is needed.
Anyways, I know I summarized the end quickly, but this is the blueprint. There are roadbumps, and you need expertise. For example, maybe you don't know how to write code then you need to use chatGPT, or find a mentor, or hire a freelancer to help.
But let me explain to you the absolute beauty of this setup. You are providing real SIM cards to people who need them as a middleman. You are a middleman, what does that mean? That means that you can filter which messages the customer receives. Why is that a good thing? Because then you can sell your services on a per website/app basis. A customer needs a number for Tinder? Great, you only forward SMS codes to that customer that come from Tinder because you see everything first!
I'll try to answer as many questions as possible in the comments, I'll even get into specifics where I'm allowed to.. but I won't recommend any specific vendors, manufacturers, or anything else as I just wanted to help people not make any referrals off this post.
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