The Victors

Background: About a week ago a friend of mine on the faculty stopped by my office to discuss some law school stuff, which I had asked her to touch base about. She said she had been having a rough day because her dog, Coconut, had been sick and lethargic, and she and her husband, who are extremely attached to it, were taking it to the vet later that day and were afraid they might have to put Coconut down. So we commiserated about pet end of life issues for a couple or three minutes.

Yesterday, I get a text from an unknown number, saying roughly Hi Dr. Behiels Coconut seems very sick today, is there any way you could see her? I suspect it may be my friend's husband texting me by mistake so I text back that they've got the wrong number, since I don't want them to think the text has been received by the vet. The person texts back that they're sorry about the mistake, and is this Paul? I, possibly stupidly, text back yes it is who is this? They don't answer. I text my friend about this and she confirms that the number isn't her husband's -- it seems to be some sort of burner account with an Alberta area code when I reverse look it up. Also their vet doesn't have that name although there is a vet with that name in Alberta Canada.

This all seems pretty disconcerting. I check and there's nothing in my texts or emails about my friend's dog -- we've never discussed Coconut online as far as I can tell. My friend has no idea what this could be about. My wife thinks it's just standard phishing and all the Coconut the dog being sick and needing to go to the vet stuff is just a coincidence. This seems wildly improbable to me but what are the alternatives here?

Signed, aging boomer who doesn't understand the computer things.