okaaayyyy i clicked the link without thinking but luckily gmail flagged it right away and i had a "d'oh" moment.

number one red flag: no social networking site would ever request any verification of you by replying to a post of yours. they would email you or i suppose possibly text you.

the reply in question appears to be gone; the account probably was, too. no clue what the full @ was though.

@tyftyb o_O what in the world. Bitches are trying to hack our mastodon accounts? My guy... touch grass.
@alex02 i guess so! the account and post were gone before i could even check it out so at least there's that