A Flattering AI Scam
I receive a flattering email. The sender is very impressed with my work. She runs an elite reading group, would like to include one of my books. I, of course, respond that she is welcome to do so. At the second or third round of the exchange she mentions a small financial contribution by the featured author to help cover the costs of the project.
One such proposal could be genuine, a worthwhile project for creating online conversations about interesting books. I think this is the third I have received in the past year. Considered as a scam, it makes sense only if targeting multiple authors, since it does not seem likely to get much money from any single author. Targeting multiple authors requires multiple versions of the emails, since they contain moderately detailed references to the author’s work, hardly likely to be worth the cost of hiring someone to compose them.
Unless they are written by an AI.
What made me suspicious the first time was the flattery. I am a big fish in several small ponds but the message did not feel as though it was coming from any of them. It felt like the sort of thing a not very successful author would like to be told about the intellectual importance of his work. My suspicion increased when a payment by me was finally mentioned.
While writing this post it occurred to me that I too have access to AI.
The “flattery scam” is a phishing tactic where scammers use AI to scrape your book’s details (like Amazon reviews) to craft highly personalized, complimentary emails. They often impersonate famous authors, publishers, or book clubs, offering deals like mentorship, foreign rights sales, or podcast interviews, only to demand upfront fees or gain unauthorized access to your accounts. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] (Google response to the search string [email flattery scam author])
From the first link I discovered that I had underestimated the potential return from a single victim. Once he falls for the first stage there are apparently ways of continuing the scam that cost him, and get the scammer, substantial sums.
From the last link my favorite comment:
None of it works without one thing. Your instinct to say yes when it appears that someone finally notices your work.
Other Versions
That started me thinking about other offers, apparently tailored to me, that I have received from multiple email addresses, I assumed from multiple people.
One is to fix problems with my web site. I interpreted it as a real offer. My site was originally constructed by me using an early HTML editor, later modernized by the teenage daughter of a fan. It would not be surprising if it contained code that violated current standards, could be fixed by a competent web editor. I assumed that the motive was being paid for services; it had not occurred to me that once I trusted someone with temporary control of my site he could take advantage of the situation with consequences costly for me and profitable for him.
Another and similar offer is to revise my site to raise its ranking in search engines. That also I interpreted as an honest offer, probably based on the reasonable assumption that a site that already got a fair amount of traffic was a commercial enterprise selling goods or services. Mine isn’t; it exists for me to link to in online conversations and for people looking for something I have written to find it, for which purposes it is adequate. It probably gets found occasionally by someone searching on a topic I have written on, which is a nice bonus now that search engines exist to do that, but not what I created the site for.
A third offer is to revise my Wikipedia page for me. Looking at the current version I find one minor error that I have no reason to correct[1] , a more accurate description of my first novel than I would have expected, nothing I much want to change.
Further googling in search of information on scams found:
How to Identify the Severn House Scam
Suspicious Email Domains: Scammers typically use unofficial or spoofed domains (e.g.,
@severnhouse.uk) or free email providers. All genuine communication from Severn House and the Joffe Books Group will only come from an official@joffebooks.com
I spent some time two months ago trying to figure out whether an email purportedly from a Severn House editor expressing interest in my next book was genuine. Apparently not; her email provider was aol.com. I only got one such offer so it did not occur to me that it might be AI, only that it might be a scam.
Which makes me wonder whether the multiple messages that first drew my interest were from one source or from multiple sources copying a scam that one had pioneered.
My web page, with the full text of multiple books and articles and much else
Past posts, sorted by topic
A search bar for past posts and much of my other writing
A draft of my next book, Consequences of Climate Change, webbed for comments.
[1] One version of the story of my role in the creation of Pennsic. I have avoided putting the correct version online since one of the more authentically period features of the SCA is the inaccuracy of its oral history.
My general rule of thumb is anytime money is mentioned, whether offered or requested, from random people, they’re filed in the trash bin.
I post some writing on Deviant Art website, just some fanfics for a niche audience. I get messages from scammers pretty much weekly, telling me how much they enjoyed my story. Eventually, the conversation turns to how they want to make a comic book or animation from my story... for a fee.
AI gives them the ability to comment on characters and plotlines as if they are real fans, who read and understand the stories.
To be honest, it's quite discouraging once it hits a tipping point where the most eloquent and extensive feedback you get ends up being insincere, artificial, and manipulative.