How did you get my number? Inside the shadowy world of data brokers

Last year, after receiving dozens of unwanted calls, Dev was able to track who held her phone number back to real estate giant CoreLogic Australia. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/The Guardian

Priya Dev has a clue on how political spam ended up in her inbox during the 2025 federal election campaign.

Like many Australians, Dev endured an unwanted flood of Trumpet of Patriots text messages – Clive Palmer has admitted to sending 17m of them. But it was email spam from one of the major political parties that she thought she could do something about.