I can’t be 100% certain, but I think there might be a fairly well done phishing scam floating around in the name of the Waterloo Region vaccine effort, either that or someone is doing some testing in the production environment that ought not be done there.
While I was away over the holidays (Boxing Day to be specific in case that somehow helps someone figure out a pattern) and again today, I received the following text from the phone number 226-243-1548.
Region of Waterloo: This is a reminder that you have an appointment at 66 Pinebush Rd, Cambridge, ON N1R 8K5 on Thursday January 06 at 12:15 PM. If you need to cancel please click the link: https://vrt.link/9e9fc102
The address is correct, which lends the thing quite a bit of credibility. It also comes from the 226 area code, which is a local one. But it starts losing points for a few reasons.
- I never made that appointment, nor did I ask anyone to make it for me.
- The message didn’t call me by name, which is a fairly common thing for appointment reminder texts to do.
- Googling that phone number doesn’t bring up any results that show it’s an official number that the health department or anybody else connected to regional administration is using.
- That cancellation link just doesn’t sit right with me, especially because in each message the string of letters and numbers at the end is different. I don’t have a spare phone or computer I can sacrifice to whatever hell may await, so I haven’t clicked it to see where it goes. But if you do, feel free to have at it and report back.
When I got the second message, I decided that I would try to figure out who to call at the region to see about getting to the bottom of things when I had a minute. But before I got that far, this happened.
Your appointment for January 06, 2022 at 12::15 PM has been successfully cancelled.
So now you see why I’m not entirely sure what it is I’m dealing with. It’s sketchy enough to be scammy, but real looking enough that some fella testing functionality could have randomly mashed in the combo of digits that adds up to my phone number.
Has this happened to anyone else?