Senior News Line: Almost hacked!

I received a text message from a company I do a lot of business with, this time thanking me for my recent order and saying the automatic payment would be made that night as soon as I verified one little piece of information.

I hear from them frequently and have for many years. When I heard from them again, in that text message on my phone, I didn’t think much about it at first.

I went to press the link in the message — wait, I said to myself, that company doesn’t have my cellphone number.

They only have my email address. They couldn’t have sent me the text message. At the last minute I pulled my hand away and did not click that link.

I called the company in question and asked if they had sent me a text message about an order. No, they said. I asked for the fraud department, beginning to panic.

The man on the other end of the call was professional and fast, firing off a lot of questions, but most especially asking if I had clicked the link. No. After asking several more questions, he determined that I was safe — this time.

The moral of this little story is, for me, to slow down. I was all too willing to jump right ahead with what I thought was a genuine text message from a company I know. I won’t make that mistake again.

Some hints:

• Don’t do banking or any kind of internet business on your cellphone.

• Keep a throwaway email address for the times you are in contact with companies.

• And, most of all, do not click any links in text messages unless you are 100% certain you know who sent the message.