Receiving your proxy's SMS

What it is for

Receiving the messages that land on the line: verification codes from a service you use, carrier notifications, delivery confirmations.

The most frequent use is validating an account by phone. Many services now require a number and refuse virtual numbers or disposable SMS services — whose ranges are widely catalogued. A number attached to a real French mobile line meets that requirement.

It is a convenience, not a trick: if a service asks for a reachable number, it gets one.

How to read your messages

My proxies → the proxy's page → the SMS panel. Received messages appear there, most recent first.

SMS panel on a proxy card in the dashboard

What to know before relying on it

Receiving is included, sending is not. You read what comes in; you do not reply from the panel.

One number per line. The number follows the SIM card, therefore the proxy. Two uses validated by the same number are linked by that number — a link at least as strong as a shared address, and one that network compartmentalisation does not undo. See Compartmentalising what you do.

The number is not forever. If the proxy is reassigned, or if the SIM changes, the number changes. Do not build a long-term identity on a number you do not control: for an account you intend to keep for years, a number of your own remains preferable.

Some senders do not get through. Messages from platforms using particular routes, or filtered by the carrier, may never arrive. It is rare, but it happens and cannot be fixed on our side.

The two-factor authentication case

If you enable SMS two-step verification on an account, you become dependent on that proxy to log in. The day you stop renting it, you lose access to the account.

Two precautions:

Write down the backup codes the platform offers you at activation time. They are the only way out.
On an account you intend to keep, prefer an authenticator app to SMS verification. It depends on no number at all.