Earlier this week, I was almost scammed. I was at home and around 7pm, I received a text message on my personal cell phone that was supposedly from my bank. The text used a common abbreviation, “BofA” for Bank of America and said that my accounts were on hold due to a suspicious activity. Conveniently, they provided a number that I could just click to call and discuss the issue. I immediately looked at phone number and didn’t recognize the area code. I was suspicious!
Rather than clicking the number that was provided in the text, I looked up the fraud prevention number for Bank of America (which by the way, in case it’s useful to you is 800-432-1000) and called them. I explained the text message and provided information for verification purposes. The representative was gracious and quickly ascertained that my accounts were not compromised and that I’d received a “phishing” text message. I provided the fraud representative with the phone number that texted me and she made a notation in my file.
It could have turned out to be very different! When I got the text message, I was alarmed and, to be honest, my first instinct was to click the telephone number provided and to get to the bottom of the matter. And yet, something inside me told me that something was off. I’m glad I paid attention to that instinct. Here’s some guidance from the Federal Trade Commission, specifically on how to recognize and report text spam messages.
Stay safe!