I know Whatsapp several tenants of privacy, but outside of North America, everybody has Whatsapp. We need to unify to spread the message of Signal as an alternative, not SimpleX.

Anyways, I've noticed a pattern as I do have Whatsapp, when I get random texts that looks suspicious, I use the app "Open In WhatsApp" and enter the phone number from the text to start a chat in Whatsapp, and 99% of the time it says that phone number is not registered for Whatsapp, thereby showing it is most likely spam. Of course that is not 100% of the case, as some people don't use Whatsapp, some businesses do use Whatsapp, but it can be a safe bet if the text number is not on Whatspp, it's very very likely spam and best to block without replying

I saw a post on here months of someone posted their reply to a text that said something like "Hi, my name is Sharon, who will you most likely vote for in the next election?" with a list of options. and they boastfully got suckered to take the bait and fell into the trap. By replying, they showed it was a live and valid number to now sell their phone number to other spammers. Never ever reply to a random message until you can guarantee who that came from.