What just happened? (Scam? Other?)

Just had a weird thing happen that I don't understand...

I got a text from someone named Charles. "Paul, Charles with (company name of a company I've done business with). When you can, give me a call. Thanks"

I don't know anyone who works there named Charles. But I call the guy back. 
 

The guy says his name is Charles, but he doesn't know me, and has nothing to do with the company.  Hmm... that's odd.

I look again at the text. No links or anything weird.  Doesn't seem like phishing.  But whoever posted it already knew my name and phone number, Charles' name and phone number, and the name of a company I do business with. 
 

Then I realize something else...

"Charles" is in my phone in my contact list.  No last name.  No company name. (I usually add both of these).  The contact includes 2 phone numbers, a Gmail address (which I don't recognize- definitely not the company), and linked contacts with ALL 4 of my email addresses (I don't even know what a linked contact is, and I've never set one up).

Is it possible for someone to send a text message that creates a contact in my contact list without my permission and links all my emails together?

I don't know what this is, and it seems almost impossible.  But it happened, and I'm trying to figure out what it is (and how to prevent it).

Thanks.

That's odd. I'll sometimes get scam/spam texts trying to get someone that's not me to sign up for some kind of Medicare plan.

It may have been the start of a scam attempt that fell apart somewhere along the way when you called back and reached the real Charles (who may have been the first victim) instead of impostor Charles.

I'm guessing the plan was for you to call back and reach an impostor Charles who would try to convince you to redirect payments to the company you've done business with to a "new account."

"Linked contact" is Apple terminology for a merged contact entry: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5229069?sortBy=rank

As for the weird contact on your phone, the way I see it there are 3 possibilities: 1: Your phone was hacked or otherwise illegitimately accessed to make the contact (not likely through SMS/RCS specifically since such a vulnerability would be big news), 2: You butt-dialed a contact merge operation and the fact that it was Charles' contact was just a coincidence, or 3: Maybe Charles' phone was hacked or SIM-swapped and contact changes automatically propagated to your phone after an attacker attempted to change Charles' phone number through a high-featured chat or email service - see the WhatsApp number change function for an example of how this might've happened.

Are your contacts synced to your Gmail account? I think maybe that account got compromised. I'd change your password immediately.

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

I don't think so (I hate synching contacts and don't do it), but I can change that password.
 

But the 4 emails all have different passwords, and 1 of them is my company business email on the company server.

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

Are your contacts synced to your Gmail account? I think maybe that account got compromised. I'd change your password immediately.

Good point, that could explain the new contact and the start of the scam attempt, which may have collapsed when a SIM-swap on Charles' number didn't work as expected. If you're changing passwords, also check recovery options to be sure nothing has changed there.

I understand that many phishing jobs are just trying to amass a database of real phone numbers and/or emails to then sell. Maybe as simple as that?

I just don't respond to anything that isn't clearly trying to reach me for some specific reason. 

Did he say what he wanted when you called back?

I thought of one possibility. When you get a text from a new person that says in it something like "this is Charles," the iPhone will offer to add Charles as a contact via a button when viewing his text. Is it possible you tapped that by mistake? And then, an iPhone will add any email addresses that are both not in anyone else's contact card and come from someone named Charles. So perhaps you have had a few people named Charles email you over the years, but you don't have them in your contacts and did not have a phone number for them. When the phone created the Charles contact it linked those email addresses to the new Charles.

All that potentially explains only the new contact card. The rest of it, I do not know. It likely could have been a scam attempt where they wanted to redirect a payment intended for  [company you do business with] to an account they control but they flubbed up something in the process.