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    Is it worth paying for a data removal service to remove your personal info from the internet to stop all the spam/robocalls?

    I have been swamped with robocalls lately and I think its due to me trying to sign up for loans on many sites even though I was rejected I think they sold my data. I don't want to break any of the rules here and name the company but its a big advertiser on the Dave Ramsey show and they seem to be legit. They offer a subcription for $10 a month. Has anyone tried these and do they actually work or are they a scam?

    Is it worth paying for a data removal service to remove your personal info from the internet to stop all the spam/robocalls?
    byu/fastercheif inFrugal



    Posted by fastercheif

    View 19 Comments

    19 Comments

    1. Smithy2232 on

      I’m not sure that once the information is out there that you can really pull it back in. My hunch is that it wouldn’t be worth it.

    2. lumberlady72415 on

      they’d find a way around it.

      best practice is to not answer unknown numbers. if it’s important, they leave a message. I have had robocallers leave a message, but they always come in at the “this is our final attempt to reach you”, bs.

    3. Ichabod89 on

      I used privacybee and am pretty happy with it. Google my name or number or search for me on some of the 600 sites they scour and you won’t find my info. Only some fragments in family information 

    4. xboxchick311 on

      I signed up for Incogni, which has removed a LOT of info and kept it gone. But data breaches are going to keep happening and your number is going to continue to be released to the wild. I think it’s easier to just get a Google Voice number to use for sign-ups that aren’t important. Then they can spam that phone number all they want, you can just turn off notifications, and not be annoyed.

    5. zomboi on

      that will not work for the long term.

      You got spam calls because you are on spam call lists. These lists are sold to other spam callers.

      You can stop spam calls for the long term by **not answering calls from unknown numbers**. If you do this you will fall of the multiple spam call lists that you are currently on. Because if you don’t answer, it will be marked as ‘inactive” and be taken off lists.

    7. Camper_Joe on

      Do you ever need to answer a call that you don’t already have in your contacts? No point to try and block. Just ignore anything you are not expecting because the rest is ads and spam and salespeople.

    8. paprika_alarm on

      If you look yourself up, you can search “remove my name from [site]” for anywhere you pop up. That removes A LOT of spam.

    9. RelayFX on

      I use Optery, not to try and stop robocalls, but to make myself hard to search on Google due to some issues with people in my past. My personal information is still definitely “out there” since not all data brokers comply with requests, but my personal information can’t be located with a simple Google search. That’s good enough to warrant the expense for me, but YMMV.

    11. Ok-Pin-9771 on

      Immediately before the last election, a bunch of us at work all got texts at the same time. I stated to everyone that getting in a car and leaving to track these people down is an option

    13. Maxxjulie on

      Feel like the only thing that works is paying off your loan then changing your phone number

    14. MaybeMinimum1099 on

      get a discover credit card. they have a free service in the app that removes and scans the internet for you info. All Free. they been doing a great job so far with my info.

    15. No_Establishment8642 on

      Something to consider, banks/financial institutions are the biggest sale of our personal information. I forget what percentage of their profit is from the sale of personal information but it is incredibly high.

      All that to say, next month all your information will be back on the Internet once the banks/financial institutions reports are released by data brokers.

    16. dawhim1 on

      you can’t be untraceable these days, but it is probably easier to setup dummy persona with disposable email and phone # just for occasion like this.

    18. o0Jahzara0o on

      I had one and I closed it. After signing up, I got an increase of spam calls, spam emails using a previous name never associated with that email, and more junk mail.

      They do remove your name from some broker accounts. But not all. Your name and info can and will continue to circulate regardless. The services are pointless. I would just download YouMail or another kind of spam calls service and wait it out.

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