Safer?  That's what hotmail and gmail are for.

While phone calls are safer in that the conversation's not being recorded, e-mails are more convenient to document an agreed meeting time and place.  Verbal agreements leave too much room for misunderstanding.  Some providers like to use the phone as a way of screening people through verbal cues.  If you want to really cut down on risk, stay out of the hobby altogether.

I have a hotmail account I use for internet purchases.  Therefore, any spam I might get goes there instead of to my real e-mail account which I use everyday.

there is a loophole in prepaid phone usage in US. In some other countries you have to register your prepaid phone under your name. If you pay for the prepaid phone kit and phone cards with cash only, your phone records would probably be very difficult to trace.

E-mails are traceable to your personal/company IP address unless you're extremely careful about covering your tracks. For some providers you have to use e-mail though before you get a phone number.

Use a separate e-mail account from hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc just for the hobbying.

Some providers do not have a computer or are computer illiterate, or merely are not comfortable with them. Others will have all initial contact by either e-mail or a "contact" form on their website.

back to the sender, anonymous or not, your IP address is logged, and if push comes to shove, your internet provider (not the provider you have wonderful session with) can give up your id.