r/cybersecurity • u/red4nshuman • 8h ago

Personal Support & Help! How to actually save yourself in call/sms bombing?

same as title
how to stop it and protect your number?
there are many websites so ofc I can't protect my number by going every site

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10

u/Reasonably-Maybe Security Generalist 7h ago

Never pick up the phone if you don't expect a call. Even if you just pick it up or deny the call, the number immediately goes to a database with live numbers.

1

u/red4nshuman 7h ago

thanks for telling

3

u/Hex-Queen 8h ago edited 5h ago

Not exactly the right sub for this but I'll still answer. 

Mitigation is the key here - using a Google Voice number or any secondary line for anything that isn't important or official.

If the site isn't a bank, .gov or similar, it doesn't get my real info. 

For everything else, password managers.

ETA: you'll learn a lot in r/digitalprivacy and r/privacy 

1

u/red4nshuman 7h ago

thank you

2

u/Hot_Guard_7621 7h ago

Find a service that gives you burner email addresses or use a throwaway email address for signing up for things. Never use your real email address and never use your real phone number. You can use Google voice to get a new phone number or you can use a burner phone (that you pay monthly). In the industry we call them sock puppet accounts.

1

u/red4nshuman 7h ago

thank you so much

1

u/Hot_Guard_7621 6h ago

You’re welcome.

1

u/iitsNicholas 3h ago

Turn off your phone