[aftbit]

I have gotten three kinds of those:

1. Someone texting the previous owner of my number (John). I got all kinds of traffic for him, including debt collectors, friends, ex-girlfriends, employers, etc. I gather John ran into a spot of financial trouble, dropped his phone-number, and skipped town.

2. An old high-school classmate trying to find my mom found my number on one of those people search sites, probably associated with her address.

3. A random girl who just wanted to chat. I talked to her for a few messages, but didn't progress to a romance scam. She seemed real to me, but who knows?

[bsamuels]

3. is a romance scam. pig butchering/romance scams take place over multiple months, not one texting session

[aftbit]

Could be, yeah. I'm a bit skeptical though. This took place months ago, and the conversation ended in a pretty reasonable place, something like "nice to meet you, take care" from me. I would have expected a few more engagement attempts from her if she wanted to scam me.

[amy-petrik-214]

Well that's part of the romance scam game, you don't want to seem too needy. The best romance scammers will play a little bit of "hard to get" and a little bit of "good cop bad cop" if you know what I mean. The aloofness that you describe here was not an accident.

[solardev]

3. Ummm... hate to break it to you, but that's the start of the scam. Hope you don't fall deeper into that convo!