Merlino is pretty sly and knows what is what and has basically his crew of his neighborhood friends since he was a little kid, I cant see him falling for some BS text message without doing due diligence to figure out who was texting him. He seems in the podcasts pretty adamant about not being around some types of people he doesnt know or might sell him out or send him back to the pen just for talking to the wrong person. I dont know there is always the chance he lets her guardd own for one second and then BOOM