I pay ~$10/mo for eweka(usenet provider) and nzbfinder.ws(usenet indexer). You do not need a VPN while connecting as long as you are using TLS when downloading. It’s not really like a private tracker because it’s not even torrenting. You’re downloading direct from the usenet provider.
It’s kind of true. But so many places are replacing physical fax lines with VOIP or even just automatically sending the fax to email via a copier, it’s hardly more secure in my experience