Member-only story
Wot, No Scammers?
I have to admit to feeling a tiny bit disappointed today. For the first time in what feels like weeks, my inbox is not full of scammers. I have no one to play with. For months I have been having fun with them.
I have been doing what you should not do — engaging.
Most of them are lonely, sad individuals with little in their lives, but some make a decent living from scamming others and can be very convincing.
They use pictures of real editors, use fraudulent email addresses, imitate other people, tag their Gmail or AOl/Outlook email address to a genuine publisher’s email, and more. However, you get to learn to spot them and have some fun.
With some of them, I ask them how much they will pay me for a guest appearance on their podcast/a review of my book/an editorial review from genuine readers or whatever they offer? I might remind them of a time we met in person, and they told me about their cat. It is kind of fun and whiles away the odd few minutes I get. I also send their emails to each other, so they can see the range of scams and maybe realise how annoying they are being.
Then I delete, block and, of course, never send any money or personal details.
Still, today, I had five minutes spare so decided ot go to my spam email — nothing. Zilch. Not a spammer or scammer in sight.
So always checking the publishers' sites, domain, genuine editors ( I know a few now) and hovering my mouse over the email address to reveal it in full has finally paid off.
Word must have got out. Good.
