AI scams: horrific and sometimes hilarious
Writers: You are all well aware, I’m sure, about the many (far too many!) scams out there targeting writers, both published authors and especially aspiring writers. (If not, learn more at the wonderful Writer Beware blog.)
I received two scam emails within the past two days, one of which was frighteningly authentic, and the other one that was such a hilarious AI fail that I just have to share it.
But first, the really scary one. Lately scammers have been posing as editors, using very realistic emails to lure writers into responding with the hope of establishing a relationship with a top editor. Here’s the one I received just this week:
This is scary on many levels, the first of which is that Wendy McCurdy is a real person, and she actually is Editorial Director at Kensington. And this email, unlike the very obvious poorly written fakes, is quite polished (though definitely a bit on the overly formal side … until the “Keep being awesome” closing).
Of course, “Wendy’s” kind words about Floreana (thanks to AI) are alluring — this is usually what makes these emails so hard to resist — and the fact that “Wendy” would like to talk to either me or my agent makes her seem accessible and professional.
Other than knowing that the real Wendy McCurdy would never send a random email like this, I noticed one red flag straight away: the British-English spelling of “programme,” which an American editor would never use.
And, as always, writers (and everyone who gets random emails, for that matter) should check the sender’s email address — in this case, though the email appeared in my inbox to have come from “Wendy McCurdy,” a look at the email address revealed that it was, in fact, from wendymccurdy.kensington@aol.com. (If you visit the Kensington website, you’ll see that legitimate emails will come from accounts at kensingtonbooks.com — not a random AOL account.)
This scam is more realistic than many, and the ones writers should be all the more aware of … AI, unfortunately, does a very good job of making such scams feel very real. However, sometimes AI gets it hilariously wrong, as in this email I received the next day:
First of all, the email was too long to include here in its entirety — I imagine even the most hopeful and gullible writers wouldn’t be able to get through this — but most of all, it’s riddled with AI fails. For one, my first name is not Raymond; also, I haven’t written a book called MIDGES (and wouldn’t name a book after myself even if I was inexplicably tempted). And I don’t write in the horror genre at all (which is exactly where this email belongs).
The writer (a fake name from a gmail account) doesn’t ask for money straight up (they never do), and this is their pitch: “I’d like to run a Goodreads visibility audit on the book and show you where discovery may currently be getting lost. Would you like me to walk you through the Goodreads audit and the visibility gaps currently affecting the book?”
Needless to say, this ended up in my trash folder very quickly, after I enjoyed it a bit: I really did love learning how my nonexistent book has the “sheer sensory intensity” that “readers actively look for.”
Not all scams can be so blatantly unbelievable, so stay aware and be safe out there. And enjoy the funny scam emails when they come in. If nothing else, they provide us with the lovely comfort of knowing that AI is most definitely not going to take our writing jobs anytime soon.
