Facebook mandatory cell phone request — how do I move past it?

Question

I'm trying to use two (genuinely me) Facebook accounts to keep my personal life and business/volunteer life separate, but the last few times I've tried to log into the secondary account, I've been hitting this screen. There's no way around it — "Report a Problem" requests that I log in first, which pushes me back to the cell number screen. There's no other options on the page.

I'd rather Facebook not have my personal cell number for an account I want to use to manage volunteer activity.

Is there any way to move past this?

Answer 1

My solution is to use a temporary phone number to get past that screen. I have done it and it solved it when I had the problem you describe.

I bought a programmatic phone number from 46elks.com. It's just €1 for one month (for the Swedish cell phone numbers. US phone numbers are €3 and I don't think they have Canadian phone numbers). With the phone number you can receive sms messages and read them from within the control panel at 46elks. When you are done confirming your Facebook-account, you can remove the phone number from your 46elks-account and you won't be charged anymore for it.

The disadvantage to use this method is that there's a risk that someone else will get hold of the phone number and take control over your Facebook account. But since the phone numbers are randomly assigned from 46elks, the risk is very low.