In the U.S. during the 90's, there were free ISP dial-up trial CD's everywhere, especially in retail checkout lanes. You were free to take as many as you wanted which was great because each CD had a unique code for the trial period offered.

After installing the providers software and creating a free email address, you'd signup for a new account and get anywhere from 30 minutes to "thousands of hours" of dial-up internet access per CD, for free (not counting paying for a landline phone service). If you ran out, delete the account and start with a new one under a new code.

Nothing was required outside of generic info (name, address etc) which could be made up because there were no real verification checks.