Trolling for Business
What does a “light scammer” look like? And, as an aside, why AI has a place in my life (but not as my writer)
I’ve been on a run of scammers looking to lighten my wallet and fatten theirs. I have two reactions to the recent events:
Good for me that I narrowly escaped their claws.
They have an amazing variety of skills and tactics. We can’t say, “To know one scammer is to know them all.” To know one scammer is to know exactly one scammer.
First, a brief review of my last 3 months of scammer-mania and the role AI has played in helping me decipher.
Case 1
An apparently lovely woman (who knows because we only corresponded via email) from the Midwest (I am from the Midwest and have a tendency to trust that part of our country for its congeniality and straight-speak) approached me because she found my novel, Coming of Age at Forty, to be fresh, original, and widely relevant.
Could she help me put together a meet-up group of readers from across the country, and I could conduct a book review?
After two days of correspondence, I grew suspicious. Whenever I read “full transparency,” I know there is something hidden in the works. Then comes the small amount of money needed to support the endeavor. Oh… and by the way… can you pay the fee to our accountant in Nigeria… and by the way, use this financial transaction service (one that I’d never heard of)?
Game over. Thank you, and don’t call back.
When she reached out again after I told her I didn’t trust the enterprise and was bowing out, she tried one more time, and I wrote that I was now blocking her (or it could be them—as in a “well-greased criminal organization”).
Case 2
Someone assuming the identity of chief editor and acquisitions strategist for a boutique publishing house contacts me via email. So that I trust him, he even offers his photo via email. He apparently is interested in my recent book, Finding the Sunny Side, and would like to meet with me and my rep to discuss potentially working together and future projects.
He claims particular interest in my push to facilitate intergenerational conversation and believes this book offers a big assist. It aligns with their strategy.
I am in the thick of a consulting project. I let him know, via email, that I am interested when my schedule lightens up and will contact him.
Two weeks later, upon trying to contact him, the emails bounce. I check out the publishing house he is supposedly a part of, and they run a banner saying there has been fraud and that we are not to trust emails recently received.
One interesting asterisk to this story is that when I received the initial email, I asked ChatGPT about the correspondence, and it responded that the publishing house and the guy are real and to be respected for a large body of significant publications that earned high praise.
BUT it said, “Beware of fraudulence,” and the man who was purportedly contacting me looks like this <insert photo>. That photo was the same photo used by the scam artist.
Game two, now over.
Case 3
I receive an email from someone who appears to have read my Alfred series of fiction. Alfred is neurodivergent, and the emailer is very specific about aspects of the book that she found unique and helped take a non-divergent person’s understanding to a new level.
She also read Coming of Age at Forty, a book about Alfred’s mom, and she found that book to be fresh in a different way, which she expounded upon. Everything she wrote fit so well with my intent (I have since noted my vulnerability based on my desire to be understood).
I was impressed by the level of attention she paid to my books and her interpretation. I suspect it was AI-assisted or AI-generated, but I have no way of knowing.
She tells me that my problem is exposure and finding the right readers. On this point, she is 100% right. She would like to help me.
And she offers seven ways to help me, shared in way-too-much detail. She signs her email with the title, “Book Visibility Specialist.”
What do I do? I go to ChatGPT and ask it to analyze.
ChatGPT gives some amazing insights (too detailed to go into here) and a few recommendations. It tells me she will want somewhere between $2000 and $4000 for her work, which will most likely have extensions for add-on help.
ChatGPT explains where she might deliver some value and suggests I decide whether that potential value is worth the fee she will seek. Chat GPT also tells me where her hype is exactly that.
When I email the “book visibility specialist” (all the while knowing it is extremely unlikely I would use her), asking about her fee structure and deliverables, she responds with another long email.
Price? Phase 1 is $1,500 and then goes up to $4,000 in no time flat. Very much in line with ChatGPT’s projection.
I thank her and tell her, nicely, “No thanks.”
She responds, “No worries, and I am always here if you change your mind.”
Game over.
ChatGPT was very helpful and had read this instance as a quasi-scam plot, with more patience and salesmanship than usual, but still largely a scam.
My conclusions
Only trust people you actually know if you decide you need assistance. Otherwise, assume all emails from people respecting your work are a scam-in-play.
Respect ChatGPT’s interpretation and assistance. It’s not always right, and you should continue to own the decision-making and not simply trust any AI agent. BUT, AI engines are chock-full of data and patterns, which I find very useful.
I believe I am getting smarter in detecting scam artists, but they are also raising their game.
I’d like them to get a real job, instead of preying on those with hope in their hearts and a few nickels in their pockets.
Until then, stay smart and skeptical. If you’re a writer, put them in your rear-view mirror and continue to write. Don’t let them take that from you.
P.S.
After writing this, I received an email yesterday, which I was sure was another scam attempt. I sent it to ChatGPT, which said it was a scam plot, but not as strong as the previous one, and then it proceeded to explain to me why.
I know ChatGPT is a mixed bag and users need to be mindful, but in my experience, it has been helpful on multiple fronts while not taking my “job” of writing away. More on that in another piece, which I might title, “Why We Also Need to Love AI.”
The title alone should draw in readers, but it’s not clickbait. For me, it’s real.
You can always tell them by the fact that these e-mails are written either by a machine or a person who is barely literate in English.
I get a lot of these a week, Jill. Scammers are relentless. They're getting easy to spot for me. It's like they have some coded template, but it all comes out the same if you read between the lines. A very relatable read, Jill.