The friendly wrong-number text

"Hi, is this Sarah? We met at the conference" — or a simple "hello". It looks like an innocent mistake. It isn't: these texts go out in bulk to millions of real numbers, and any reply — even a polite "wrong number" — tells the sender a person is listening.

What follows is patient and friendly: days or weeks of small talk, photos, a budding friendship or romance. Then, casually, the new friend mentions how well their crypto investments are going. This is the opening move of "pig butchering" — the scam category that now costs victims more than any other. One reply has led people to lose their life savings.

What to do: don't reply at all — not even to correct them. Delete and block. And never discuss money with someone who arrived in your phone "by mistake".