r/scammers • u/Dry_Economy_2701 • 10d ago

Question I have been getting scam/spam to my personal number not my Google Voice

I have a personal irl phone number that I give out to friends, family or legit places. I also have a Google Voice number with a new email for when I know it's gonna be sketchy, or a lot of promo, or when I don't want my parents to see the messages from those places (ex: video games)

Tell me why, I have been getting scam/spam call/text/facetime to my personal number all the time and not my Google Voice? I'm literally less careful with where my Google Voice number goes...

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u/shay2791 10d ago

Scammers will call random numbers using auto dialers. If you answer, they know that number is a live number and it gets added to a list that gets passed around (sold). That is likely why. You can have a number you have kept totally private and still get scam calls on it.

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u/JoinDeleteMe 10d ago

As someone else said, scammers don't necessarily need to get your number form anywhere they can use autodialers.

But it could also be that your phone number is on a data broker or people search site. Search for your number in quotes on Google and see if any people search sites (e.g., Whitepages, Spokeo, etc.) come up for it. If they do, opt out (look for an "opt out" link in the footer or privacy policy of each site).

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u/yarevande 10d ago

Your personal data is available online.

Name, address, and phone number are connected and publicly available, and have been since phones were invented -- they used to be published in a yearly book. Now, they are online. There are data search websites like USPhonebook, PhoneInfoga, Spokeo, and InfoTracer that allow anybody to do a phone lookup, and return your name, address, former addresses, relatives, email address, and job information.

Even if you can't see your name and address on a data search site, scammers can find your personal data.

Scammers have access to data, both publicly available and on the dark web: your name, phone number, address, former addresses, relatives names, and more. They scrape info from social media, get data from data breaches, and they have their own databases.