Yesterday, Bill and I were having lunch at one of our favorite neighborhood joints. It’s called Crave, and it offers barbecue and hot dogs. How can you go wrong? I was worrying about the chili and onions on my hot diggity and how the woman who would be giving me a mammogram in about a half hour would handle the smell of onions mixed with mouthwash, when my phone rang.

It was a number I didn’t recognize. Historically, I have disregarded any number that didn’t come up with a name from my contact list. But since I am in continuous contact these days with various people affiliated in some way with our move, I can no longer ignore unfamiliar telephone calls.

“Hello?” I said into my cell phone, wondering if it would be the mover or the packer or the window dresser.

There was a lengthy pause, and then a computer voice announced that it was T-Mobile, alerting me to the fact that someone had purchased a $1,300 cell phone using my account. Never fear, it went on, because if it wasn’t you, press 1.

I hung up, but I immediately began worrying about whether or not someone using my T-Mobile account was purchasing a cell phone while I was eating a chili dog. The recording sounded very legit.

“If anyone buys a new iPhone, it’s going to be ME!” I told Bill.

Despite the fact that my mammogram appointment was looming, we drove over to the T-Mobile store that was very close by. I explained my situation. The nice man asked me to look and tell him the phone number from my “recent calls” list. I did, and he assured me that it was a scam call.

“T-Mobile would send an e-mail instead of a phone call,” he told me. “And if it was a call from T-Mobile, it would be an 800 number and not a local call. You were smart to hang up on the call.”

Aren’t we all having to hang up on more and more calls these days? I’m thankful that my phone tells me when an incoming call is a scam, or at least it tries. But I will tell you that mixed with my relief at dodging a scam bullet was a sense of sadness that there are such awful people in the world.

Bill and I are both pretty careful about phone calls and emails. We check with one another when we question a text’s legitimacy. But I know some very smart people who have been fooled by a convincing person with a convincing message.

Stay vigilant my friends.

And I really do wish my window dresser would call me back!