[zozbot234]

Google should simply have paid, in-person support for these issues. Cuts off the spam merchants, while still letting Joe Average create an account with their usual phone number once they've been verified as an actual person. That's got to have some value, even to Google themselves.

[tester756]

>While still letting Joe Average create an account with their usual phone number once they've been verified as an actual person.

so, how?

[pjerem]

By talking on the phone.

[coder1001]

credit card matching the User's name/location?

[Rebelgecko]

I don't think that would go over well. When Google asked people to share a national ID or credit card in the EU (age verification is legally required to be compliant with the new "think of the children" regulations in the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive), people online freaked out.

(disclaimer, work for Google but not on this)

[Zak]

I encountered this on Youtube even though my account registration and VPN endpoint say I'm in the US. I ended up fixing it with a browser extension.