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"I always think everything could be a trap, which is why I'm still alive." - Prince Humperdinck
...
I receive a few texts per month from my phone service provider, all of them relating to imminent or successful payments. Two days after I ignored the last one, I discovered that I had no phone service. I looked at the most recent text, which said, "Payment blocked!" and gave me a number to call. This was inconvenient timing, as I had just left the house, and couldn't check into whether there were problems with the credit card.
I don't call numbers that companies give me to call. I look up the number first, to make sure it's really them, just in case of phishing scams. Since my phone service had in fact stopped, and since I have a little used number that gets few scam calls, this seemed very unlikely, but just to be on the safe side, I still didn't call. I waited until I got home, and verified that my last payment had indeed gone through. While I was researching the phone number in question, my phone service resumed.
It had been a phishing scam with spectacular timing, coming before a temporary service outage! If I hadn't already developed good digital hygiene habits, it certainly would have suckered me in.
...
I receive a few texts per month from my phone service provider, all of them relating to imminent or successful payments. Two days after I ignored the last one, I discovered that I had no phone service. I looked at the most recent text, which said, "Payment blocked!" and gave me a number to call. This was inconvenient timing, as I had just left the house, and couldn't check into whether there were problems with the credit card.
I don't call numbers that companies give me to call. I look up the number first, to make sure it's really them, just in case of phishing scams. Since my phone service had in fact stopped, and since I have a little used number that gets few scam calls, this seemed very unlikely, but just to be on the safe side, I still didn't call. I waited until I got home, and verified that my last payment had indeed gone through. While I was researching the phone number in question, my phone service resumed.
It had been a phishing scam with spectacular timing, coming before a temporary service outage! If I hadn't already developed good digital hygiene habits, it certainly would have suckered me in.
