my wife once needed to call PayPal for some questions about her account and some transactions. After trying their online chat and email to communicate and getting nowhere she found a number online. We called the number and they wanted us to verify our identity by going to a nearby authorized storefront. Seemed questionable, but we had called so it had to be legit, I thought. I took the phone and was on my way to the store getting more and more bothered by the situation, but we hadn't actually shared any information with them yet. The moment they said I needed to buy a gift card was when it all came crashing down on me that we were getting scammed. I hung up, turned around, and went home. Scammers are getting very good at social engineering people to get information out of them. We might have fallen for the same trap as the linked OP if they had tried the text message verification trick instead of telling me to drive to a nearby store and buy gift cards.

It's scary how important your phone number is for information security.