How do I handle scammers after a stolen iPhone with erase pending on Find My iPhone?

What should I do?

You should totally ignore and delete the texts that you are receiving, since they are trying to trick you into removing the protections built into your iPhone, so your phone can be sold to another person as soon as possible.

True, you will never see the phone again, but at least you can really frustrate the bad guys who have your phone, because it will remain useless to them as long as you ignore them.

You probably received one of the common lies along the lines of "We're going to sell your phone no matter what you do, but we want to 'help' you by removing your data from your phone. If you don't do as we say, all your data will be sold on the dark Web."

Assuming that your phone was locked and passcode-protected with a passcode that the thieves did not know, and could not easily guess (e.g., not "123456"), their chances of getting at your data are very slim and none. Once the phone learned of the "Mark as Lost" request, if they didn't know your Apple ID and Apple ID password, and weren't able to trick you into revealing them or removing your device from iCloud, their opportunity to even get to a screen where they could make futile guesses of the passcode would be gone.

They just want you to think they have access to your data.