I'm not sure how I haven't seen this before, but I received a text this morning from xxx-xxx-xxxx@vtext.com telling me to call yyy-yyy-yyyy. Since I don't generally get a lot of calls from outside of my own area code (and even fewer text messages), and my phone isn't in the 407 area code, I thought it prudent to do a bit of research into who this "person" was that wanted me to call them. A quick Google search later and a look at the comments from a few different sites gave me all the info I needed to confirm that this is a phishing attempt.
Apparently, the number indicated in the text message is answered by an auto-attendant that indicates that some form of restriction has been placed on your debit card, and then asks you for your debit card number. To add to the suspicion, the auto-attendant apparently doesn't provide any sort of identification as to who it is you just called. Obviously I'm not going to provide my debit card number to anyone that won't tell me who they are, can't verify that they are who they are, isn't someone I already trust, and who's so obviously just phishing for my information.
The sad thing is, I know that there may be some people who are taken in by this scheme, so I wanted to share the information I've found with as many of you as possible. From everything I can tell, this is some spammer who is likely spoofing the @vtext.com domain to send out their phishing messages so that they look "legit". Please be just as careful about what you receive via text messages as you would be with an e-mail message. There are, unfortunately, people out there who would rather put their efforts into scamming other people than into actually providing a respectable contribution to society.
<< Message edited to remove phone numbers >>
Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator
