Can cops arrest you if you reply to fake backpage ad?

[rhuarc29]

For things like texts and e-mails they might be able to make a case depending on what was said, although it would be fairly challenging. They would have to find a way to tie the messages back to a specific person which could be hard if other people had access to the computer or the phone that was used. For voice calls it would be almost impossible because there would be no way to prove what was said during the phone call unless the agency did something dumb like record incoming phone calls.

Which may be why storm77 received a warning, rather than an arrest; simply because it's too difficult to go after text messages alone. Waste of time. Or they may have been trying to get him to confess, so that they could charge him. That is, of course, if it wasn't a scam to begin with, which he doesn't think it was.