Senior News Line: A scam close to home

Oops. I came very close to falling for a scam just like the ones I always warn against in this column.

The text message on my phone appeared to come from the local pharmacy. The words said that they had questions and would I please call.

Included in the text was a link to touch that would dial the number for me. At the last minute, I pulled my hand away and studied the message more closely.

The pharmacy was in the chain where I do business, but it was from the branch in the next town, not where my prescriptions are.

And when I looked closely at the number in the link to click, I realized it was from an area code in a completely different state.

I put the phone down and got on the internet. Sure enough, that linked number was fake and was used in all manner of scams, including ones that could have instantly downloaded malware onto my phone.

I called the pharmacy in question — from my other phone — just to be sure they hadn’t sent it. No, they hadn’t. I very carefully deleted that scam message, being sure not to touch that link.

So, all is well, but I’m a bit unnerved by just how close I came to blithely clicking that link because I didn’t initially question the message.

Save yourself some potential trouble by looking closely at any text messages you get on your phone.

Scammers are getting wiser, but they’re not infallible. The pharmacy used in my text message was genuine, a logical request from a specific local company.

What they didn’t realize was that they were working from an old list. We now have a branch of that pharmacy here in town.

I would not have used the pharmacy in the next town — and that was my clue.