HOW TO… Use a ‘burner’ phone number to avoid cold calls
What you need: Pay as you go SIM or VoIP number; old mobile phone
Time required: An hour
However careful you are about only giving your phone number to those who really need it, it’s probably spread much further than you imagined. Despite what it may say in the terms and conditions and the privacy policy of every form you’ve filled in, it’s almost certainly been shared many times over. If you’re not already getting automated calls about car crashes you’ve never been in or fake tech support, think yourself lucky.
The only way to get off all these lists once and for all is to get yourself a new number – but why should you go to all that trouble? Doing so means you also need to give out your new details to your friends and family, which in turns means they need to update their contact lists. Your two-factor authentication security measures will fail as single-use login codes are sent to your old line. Messaging tools like WhatsApp, which are tied to your mobile-phone number, will need reconfiguring.
In this instance prevention is better than cure. In short, if you can prevent your number from getting on those lists in the first place,
