Unfortunately, these buggers are everywhere. mw~It's got to the stage where we now assume EVERY communication via ANY channel is phony/ a scam. We work backwards from there and engage with only those we know (or think we know) is genuine. Otherwise it is dumped and ignored. I now find for eg that I only treat about 3/10 emails as straightup clean. The good news, it's getting worse by the day. What with the politicians, media and big tech, it's got to the stage where I believe nothing of what I hear and only half of what I see, and I'm struggling with the last one too.
And I am aware that everything you email or txt is retrievable. I can appreciate why folks like to go off grid.