How I got the message

When a text spammer offered me a job, I said yes. Here's what happened next

- ALEX BOYD

Scammers may pose as recruiters for real or made-up companies to make their outreach seem legitimate. The messages shown above were sent by text or WhatsApp to Star staff members.

Emma at least, that's what she calls herself is quick to respond and keen to answer my questions. But she gets defensive when I press her on where she got my phone number.

"I think our company's recruitment team found you through big data," she says in a WhatsApp message, her profile photo showing a carefree woman in sunglasses and Chanel earrings. She's less breezy when pressed to explain what it means to have been tracked down by "big data."

"Big data found you. I don't know how they found you," she responds tersely.

The conversation takes a turn, and she declares me "not suitable for this job," referring to the high-salary, low-commitment opportunity she'd dangled in front of me just minutes earlier. Her next message is downright curt: "Bye-Bye."

Our conversation has stalled out - at least for now.

Few smartphone owners need to be told what a spam text is. Messages in a bottle of the digital age, they wash up on your screen from someone claiming to know you, to have a job you'd be perfect for, to be your child in urgent need of money. I'm usually the delete-and-forget type, but when I got four messages in a week, I started to wonder.

Anecdotally, friends and acquaintances have also seen a major uptick in pestering messages. Less anecdotally, cybersecurity experts also say they've seen a "surge" in recent months, likely due to a combination of spammers feeling the affordability pinch they're just like us! - and increasingly harnessing the spam powers of artificial intelligence.

"They're not behaving like they used to, in terms of they're not being as lazy as they used to be. They're working harder," said David Shipley, CEO of cybersecurity firm Beauceron Security. "It makes me nervous."