Two Very Reliable Yahoo Accounts Dead
 

I have a business and home phone number. Many years ago, I made a terrible mistake. I gave my
"real" home number to one of the biggest online retailers. My home was drowned with robocalls.
During that time, my father was living with us. He was extremely ill. I don't know why, but he ran
to answer all those scam calls. Obviously, I was forced to change my home phone number.

I have two Yahoo accounts that go back to 2000. (Yahoo email launch date-1997.)

Recently, Yahoo insisted I change passwords. No problem. After several days they demanded a contact
phone number for "my protection." All large corporations have a privacy policy, but buying and selling
lists of phone numbers is a multi-billion dollar business. I couldn't risk giving them a real phone number,
so I provided fakes. If that's a crime, then I'm guilty of being a rational person!

Yesterday, I got an "unusual activity" notice when I tried to access my accounts. They want me to call
using the fake numbers I provided. I've never had the slightest problem with either, so I don't know why
Yahoo has destroyed my email accounts.

Many states and the federal government have passed laws about scam robocalls. They don't work. I'm
99.99% certain I'd be flooded with robocalls if gave Yahoo my home or business phone number.

I'm sure Yahoo has customer support phone numbers. If I called, what could I say? My 17 years as a Yahoo
customer is over.

I've had the same number for more than 10 years and I have given it out to hundreds, if not thousands of businesses. I have it registered with the national Do Not Call Registry and I get maybe a half-dozen scam calls each month. My wife's phone number the same. Maybe it's because they are cell numbers? In any case, things were much worse a decade ago with regular landlines when we would get cold calls and scams every day. At my business we get maybe one or two scammy calls each day, but that is to a number widely available to the public used all over the Internet. You basically need a cell phone and a valid email address to establish your own legitimacy in today's world. At the very least, you will need a cell phone to receive text messages for 2FA and for when you get locked out of your accounts.

If you call, tell them the truth. And then get another email address with a different company, a one that doesn't require a phone number, such as GMX, Lumail, ProtonMail, Tutanota, Yandex or Zoho. Or get an account with a company that won't share your phone number, such as Gmail or Outlook (I have accounts with both and I've never had nuisance phone calls).