Almost fell for a phishing text pretending to be my bank last week

I was at the grocery store checkout when I got a text saying my account was locked and to click a link to verify. The URL looked off by one letter so I called my bank instead and they confirmed it was a scam. Has anyone else gotten fake texts from numbers that look legit?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_shane1d ago

A buddy of mine got hit by one of those last month. He was at work and the text looked super real, same number format and everything. He clicked the link and started filling out his info but then saw the URL actually said "bankofamerica-secure" instead of the real site. He closed it quick but spent the whole weekend worrying if his phone was compromised. His bank told him he was fine since he didn't hit submit, but it scared him straight. Now he calls the bank for anything suspicious.

perez.cole1d agoMost Upvoted

Your buddy got lucky catching that URL. Most people don't notice those tiny details until it's too late. One thing though, he probably didn't need to worry about his phone being compromised just from clicking the link and not submitting. Scammers can't install anything just from a link click unless they're using some zero-day exploit, which is rare for SMS phishing. They rely on people typing info in for the scam to work. Still, running a malware scan never hurts and calling the bank is always the smart move.