How exactly can they get the phone number though? The only thing I can think of is if there was an unlocked (no PIN) physical SIM-card, and they could just insert it into another phone.
And yes, e-SIM solves this problem.
And yes, e-SIM solves this problem.
Edit: she replied to a comment on the article: "when trying to reset my phone they are prompted to enter my iCloud password. My iCloud email is also one of the ways to reach me via iMessage. So they used that to contact me"