Moving AT&T Saraplus/Live Chat Phishing/Scam

Hello,

I am in the process of moving and starting AT&T/Direct TV service. I had a vendor contact myself (Saraplus/Sara+) and they requested my SSN over the phone. I do not give this information out and then I was sent a text message and told to fill out an online form to do a soft credit check. I deflected and did not oblige.

Later, a similar instance occurred in an attempt to use the live chat. I was told that to sign up for service, I had to do a soft credit check, and my personal info, including my SSN, was requested again. The text message came from 31077, and the link was secure-az-e.att.com. The live chat agent from AT&T's official website was very persistent about me filling this form out. I chose not to, as previous forum entries said this could be a scam.

My question is, are either of these procedures legitimate? Asking people to provide their SSN through text links seems incredibly concerning.

Thank you

jjones8819