@apenultimate Back in the day, I got a flip phone and only used it to communicate with family and close friends. The lan line was the number we gave out to doctor offices, etc. And we never answered it unless caller ID showed up like doctor office, etc. And did the LAN line did scams,sales pitches, etc.

After getting a smartphone, almost immediately I started getting scam calls, etc. on it. I figure there are people either hacking phone databases or people inside the carrier selling the info. I knew a lapsed Mormon who moved from Utah to WA, and got what supposedly was a private unpublished number. Sure enough on her new private number she started getting calls from Mormon church members asking about her lapsed status. There must have been Mormons working for the phone carrier to pass on the information.

I just never give out my real phone number, except to family and friends. Never give out my real email, or, I use a free Google email that I don't use for anything but booking hotels, flights, etc., and then I switch up my faux Google email every couple of years. The spam piles up, in there, and my personal and work emails are free from the cruft.

I never use my real info to make those Google email accounts either.

Seriously, if I get a phone call or email from some company that I didn't ask to send me something, they're on my list of places never to buy anything from.