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I'm fairly certain this is untrue. Looking at the signup form, all I can see is name, email, password, birthdate and gender. They may ask for it later, but that almost certainly is optional.

This is sort of true. If you want to use the account as a developer account you have to register your phone number. Also probably to advertise.

I recently wanted to create an "Admin" account for a client I was developing a web-app for as I didn't want to link my personal facebook account to my work. But with the phone number requirement the account got flagged and rejected from the system.

Frustrating!

There are SIP providers which offer phone numbers on their free tiers. But I'm sure they would appreciate registering throwaway accounts even less than Facebook and its ilk.

If that's true, a $15 tracfone takes care of it.

Sorry, but fake facebook account isn't worth that much. YMMV.