1. When you receive a scam text asking you to wire money, don’t rush to delete it. Check which bank the account number belongs to, then log into that bank’s online portal. Enter the scammer’s card number and type in a random password. After three failed attempts, the card will be frozen for 24 hours with no transactions allowed. Just sit back and watch. If you’re feeling dedicated, do this every single day — three tries a day — and let them see what happens when they try to scam people! And if by some miraculous stroke of luck the password turns out to be correct, please donate the money to disaster relief. If you’re truly strapped for cash, well… transfer it to yourself.

2. Look up the city associated with the phone number, then find a same-sex dating site for that city. Register an account and leave that phone number as the contact info.

3. Post a listing on the local rental website: “Two-bedroom apartment in the city center, 300 yuan/month, must go immediately. Available 24 hours.” Leave that phone number.

4. Find the local mobile carrier’s website. During the login process, there’s usually an option to receive a verification code via text. Just keep requesting verification codes non-stop — that alone should be enough to drive the scammer up the wall.

5. A bank employee who received the same kind of scam text — “Please wire money to account XXX” — decided to comply, sending 1 fen (0.01 yuan) per transaction, with each transfer deducting 2 yuan from the recipient’s account. After wiring a little over 1 yuan, the scammer finally texted back: “Please stop sending money! You’ve already cost me over 200 yuan in fees. You must be an insider! How are we supposed to make a living?!”

(The trick: select “Recipient pays the handling fee” when wiring — 2 yuan per transaction.)

Please share this with everyone so we all know how to deal with scammers.