[GMcL]

Act in haste repent at leisure.

If someone calls and catches you off guard you can always hang up. We've always been taught it is impolite to hang up but that was 50+ years ago.

Ask what it is regarding and tell them now is not convenient you have a meeting or whatever to go to, ask them politely to call back in 30 minutes. Whether they call back or not will tell you if it's genuine and gives you 30 minutes to find out what's what.

As for emails, best setup multiple accounts. The problem is most people are honest and think myfirstname.mylastname<somerandomnumbermaybe>@serv iceprovider.co.uk is what they must have.

Gof*ckyersel@hotmail.com is (probably) taken but you can make any old addresses up and use them for forums, media, whatever you're into and helps you narrow down where the leak is coming from if you get such emails in future.

Create a bucket one for any websites or web apps that insist on an email address to validate use. Once passed the initial verification they can send a billion emails to an address no one monitors. If it's OK for big business why not for the little guy ?