Granted, the “nickel and diming” of hotline numbers (1900, 0900, etc) was nowhere as bad as today’s cash shops, but a lot of us simply forgot they were always hungry for all our money
Here’s a bunch other hotline ads for you to peruse - https://www.retromags.com/gallery/category/1729-telephone-hotlines/
PS: I never understood these american numbers that used letters, how were you supposed to know what was the actual number?
Gotta remember that home computers weren’t “popular” back then either (it was easier for a household to have no computer than to have any), so anything on the internet would be the equivalent of browsing freenet, gemini or i2p today