924-482-3046

Got a text from this number asking "are you a dental clinic?  Do you take on online appts".  I live in the SE and this area code is from MN.  The number doesn't exist.  Guess they want me to tell them they have a wrong number so they can download mallard.  This is a new scam for me.

BA wrote:

... so they can download mallard.

They are going to download a duck, via text?  Not likely.
Did you perhaps mean to write "malware"?
A texter cannot download malware (or even a mallard) to your phone just because you reply back to them, so it is safe to tell them whatever you want.
This might have just been a misdialed text, or it could have been a "lure text" to try to draw you into a scam, but there is no reason why you cannot text a reply to tell them to stop and then block the number so any further texts from the number simply end up in your junk messages folder.