Hi Sarah, it's Mike from the gallery, are we still on for Thursday?
...
Oh no, so sorry, wrong number! 😅 You seem nice though, how's your day going?
You reply "wrong number". They apologise. They're charming. A few days later you're chatting every evening.
Short answer: this is a scripted opening. Millions of these texts are sent at once. Anyone who replies is handed to a person - often someone trafficked into a scam compound - whose job is to build a relationship with you over weeks and then introduce an "investment".
How it plays out
- Rapport. Photos of a good-looking, successful person. Questions about your life. Compliments. Nothing about money for one to three weeks.
- The lifestyle. They mention, casually, that they trade crypto or gold with help from an uncle, mentor or "analyst". Screenshots of profits.
- The offer. They'll show you how, "no pressure". A link to a trading platform with a professional-looking dashboard.
- The win. Your first small deposit "makes" money and you can even withdraw a little. That's the only real money you'll ever get back.
- The squeeze. Bigger deposits, "tax" to withdraw, "account frozen, deposit to unlock". When you stop, they vanish.
This is called pig butchering (fattening up before the slaughter). Average losses are in the tens of thousands.
The tells in the first week
- The wrong-number excuse, then continued interest in you instead of ending the chat.
- Photos that look like a model; a reverse image search often finds them on Instagram under another name.
- They can't video call, or the call is short and low quality.
- Any mention of trading, crypto, gold, or an "uncle at an exchange".
What to do
- Don't reply to wrong-number texts at all. Delete and block.
- If you're already chatting: ask for a live video call. Then ask yourself why this person, who supposedly has a great job and life, spends hours a day texting a stranger.
- If money has been mentioned, stop. Never deposit into a platform you found through a chat.
- If you've already deposited: don't pay any "tax" or "unlock fee" - that is the scam continuing. Keep the chat history and report it to your bank and the police.
Not sure? Paste it
Paste the conversation into Scamed - it flags the move to WhatsApp, the "inside signals" and the deposit request the moment they appear.