What is a well known 'public secret' in the industry you work in that the majority of outsiders are unaware of?

I wouldn't say they're a scam! They are submitting your name automatically to everyone at once - or at least everyone who follows the law.

It's just not a long-term solution. Data Brokers are incredibly incestuous. Any data that one owns will find its way back into all the others.

If you want to try to clean up as much as possible, unsubscribe from as much as you can. Close every account that you reasonably can.

Then setup a monthly reminder to ask incogni (or similar) to nuke your data from the web. It'll work, just not forever.

It's going to be an eternal effort against a constant tide.