Suspicious followers on publishing websites (like fiction press, AO3 etc)

[Naruzeldamaster]

I don't know if I'm being overly cautious or whatever, but every now and then I'll get alerts from fiction press.
Typically, they will be a follow from a random stranger and a send me a direct message that smells...bot written. Nothing overtly bad or sinister, but something feels off half of the time.

The most common one I get are artists looking for commission work, followed by other authors who want to 'colab' on a project. And while I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt, the exact wording smells fishy.

Almost none of them go into any detail about what 'moved' them in my story or what inspired them to contact me like this in the first place, so that makes it feel extra dodgy.

The reason I'm very suspicious, is that I am NOT active on fictionpress, like, hardly any, for many years. I DO have an 'active' account, as in I could log in and use it if I wanted, but it's been collecting dust since like, 2015 or so. So that's already kind of fishy on it's own.

 

[pmmg]

Heck, 90% of my mail is spam. And about 99% of it from the writing community is someone trying to get me to give them money. I would ignore all of those, or make a rule to send them straight to trash. When I am looking to collaborate (which, for me, is never) or when I am looking for a marketing team or a ARC trade or a beta reader or whatever...I will go looking for you. But by policy, if you contact me, you go straight to trash. I did not write my books so some other slickster could make money. They can all go jump in a lake. Better if that lake was on fire.

As a rule, if you did not reach out to them, any amount of suspicion is enough to trash em.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Heck, 90% of my mail is spam. And about 99% of it from the writing community is someone trying to get me to give them money. I would ignore all of those, or make a rule to send them straight to trash. When I am looking to collaborate (which, for me, is never) or when I am looking for a marketing team or a ARC trade or a beta reader or whatever...I will go looking for you. But by policy, if you contact me, you go straight to trash. I did not write my books so some other slickster could make money. They can all go jump in a lake. Better if that lake was on fire.

As a rule, if you did not reach out to them, any amount of suspicion is enough to trash em.

Yeah, that's the rule I've been going with, they are very suspicious on the fact that this account hasn't posted anything 'new' since like 2015 or so.
The other rule is that they don't even describe the scenes that impressed them so much. Very suspicious that they can't even remember what was so amazing that they decided to work with me. I'd like to think my work is good, but like come on, shady used cars salesman pitch isn't going to sell me on working with them.

 

[pmmg]

I get those mostly from Facebook.

Wow, Author, I am so impressed with your work. The Eye of Ebon was such a grand quest and the heroine was fun to follow. I notice you marketing is not driving customers to your facebook page. I have a plan that guaranties... They are all kind of the same. Did they give any true indication they read the book? No...they didn't. And I know they could not have. They dont have time to read all the people they are spamming, so its just hoping I dont notice the it lacks any real proof of having read. I guess, the thing is, we have to be sophisticated in our selection process, and learn to weed out all this junk.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I think the last, like, 30 new followers we've gotten on our FB page is a bot. Occasionally, I'll get the solicitation by either a derp-a-bot or some poor bastard who somehow had to run across me. Best way to flush out a bot in under 10 seconds is open with an non-sequitur. Maybe a one-liner. The bot can't react correctly or quickly to either of those, and I have never yet met the innocent who can walk right into my line - heh heh - of fire and not react.

 

[pmmg]

I think the last, like, 30 new followers we've gotten on our FB page is a bot. Occasionally, I'll get the solicitation by either a derp-a-bot or some poor bastard who somehow had to run across me. Best way to flush out a bot in under 10 seconds is open with an non-sequitur. Maybe a one-liner. The bot can't react correctly or quickly to either of those, and I have never yet met the innocent who can walk right into my line - heh heh - of fire and not react.

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You gave them more attention than I would have. Even if they are legit, I dont want their advice or service.

 

[pmmg]

I notice here on Mythic Scribes, that the number of guests viewing us is up in the 500's, as if 500 non-logged in accounts are reading our message boards. That used to be a lot lower, closer to 50, and sometimes just in the teens. This changed with AI became a thing. So, I suspect its just 450 bots and a small number of RL People. But...it is noticeable.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I notice here on Mythic Scribes, that the number of guests viewing us is up in the 500's, as if 500 non-logged in accounts are reading our message boards. That used to be a lot lower, closer to 50, and sometimes just in the teens. This changed with AI became a thing. So, I suspect its just 450 bots and a small number of RL People. But...it is noticeable.

We live in perilous times.

 

[Mad Swede]

There's been an increase in e-mails and other messages like this, and the advice is as always to ignore solicitations that come out of the blue.

Writer Beware - Return of the Nigerian Prince: A New Twist on Book Marketing Scams

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

There's been an increase in e-mails and other messages like this, and the advice is as always to ignore solicitations that come out of the blue.

Writer Beware - Return of the Nigerian Prince: A New Twist on Book Marketing Scams

Ah yes, the classic Nigerian prince bit, I've gotten that one a couple of times. Maybe I should hit one of these scammers up with that and see how they respond lol

It is crazy to me that they think people fall for this stuff, at least adults, don't know about teens or younger.
The fact that they come out of the blue is the first red flag for me, it's almost never someone who's been following me for a long time and reviewing every chapter or so etc. So that alone is fishy enough as is.

I notice here on Mythic Scribes, that the number of guests viewing us is up in the 500's, as if 500 non-logged in accounts are reading our message boards. That used to be a lot lower, closer to 50, and sometimes just in the teens. This changed with AI became a thing. So, I suspect its just 450 bots and a small number of RL People. But...it is noticeable.

Interesting, I wonder what the bots discover reading forums (not just here but other places too) that makes them think someone is a worthy target. Obviously they're searching something out.

 

[Mad Swede]

Ah yes, the classic Nigerian prince bit, I've gotten that one a couple of times. Maybe I should hit one of these scammers up with that and see how they respond lol

It is crazy to me that they think people fall for this stuff, at least adults, don't know about teens or younger.
The fact that they come out of the blue is the first red flag for me, it's almost never someone who's been following me for a long time and reviewing every chapter or so etc. So that alone is fishy enough as is.

For many would-be writers, who dream of a publishing contract with one of the big five leading to a best seller or a film offer, such e-mails can seem very convincing. That's especially true if they've been trying for many years to get a publishing contract or to make headway with their own self-published books. I'm not in that situation myself, I was a lot luckier in that I got a good publishing contract very quickly, but I can understand how easy it might be to fall for a convincing scam.

Interesting, I wonder what the bots discover reading forums (not just here but other places too) that makes them think someone is a worthy target. Obviously they're searching something out.

Which is one reason I don't use my real name or my pen name on these forums...

 

[Penpilot]

Ah yes, the classic Nigerian prince bit, I've gotten that one a couple of times. Maybe I should hit one of these scammers up with that and see how they respond lol

It is crazy to me that they think people fall for this stuff, at least adults, don't know about teens or younger.
The fact that they come out of the blue is the first red flag for me, it's almost never someone who's been following me for a long time and reviewing every chapter or so etc. So that alone is fishy enough as is.

All it takes is one naive person in thousands to make it worth their while, especially if their scam system is automated. From reading posts from other writing forums, some times the desperation to be read/noticed/appreciated is palpable.

Also, I use to think I could never be fooled by any these internet scams, but I've come across some (not writing related) that were very convincing and that I think I could be fooled by in a moment of weakness/distraction. We hear a lot about the obvious ones like this, but what keeps me on guard are the ones that we may not hear about, because they work.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

All it takes is one naive person in thousands to make it worth their while, especially if their scam system is automated. From reading posts from other writing forums, some times the desperation to be read/noticed/appreciated is palpable.

Also, I use to think I could never be fooled by any these internet scams, but I've come across some (not writing related) that were very convincing and that I think I could be fooled by in a moment of weakness/distraction. We hear a lot about the obvious ones like this, but what keeps me on guard are the ones that we may not hear about, because they work.

I don't think I've ever been that desperate for my work to be read, but maybe I'm just wired differently. I write what I think is a fun/cool story and if people happen to read/like it also that's cool. I need to buckle down and actually finish a (non fanfiction) project before I consider self publishing as an option.

 

[pmmg]

Ah yes, the classic Nigerian prince bit, I've gotten that one a couple of times. Maybe I should hit one of these scammers up with that and see how they respond lol

It is crazy to me that they think people fall for this stuff, at least adults, don't know about teens or younger.
The fact that they come out of the blue is the first red flag for me, it's almost never someone who's been following me for a long time and reviewing every chapter or so etc. So that alone is fishy enough as is.

Interesting, I wonder what the bots discover reading forums (not just here but other places too) that makes them think someone is a worthy target. Obviously they're searching something out.

Well...I suspect they can only read the open to the public forums, so there are limited. Most are just key word scrapers, I would guess, looking to build up their search engines. Many of our topics do show up in google searches, but 500 of them running? And is something AI. Probably a lot of companies looking to train their language models. But...Who knows really. I sure dont. Some of the old topics seem like good ones though. I am sorry I missed them. It is interesting to sift through some. There was a membership before the current core group that had so much passion and energy for the conversation, and they are all gone now, barely to be seen in the layers of clay beneath us.

 

[Josh2Write]

I don't know if I'm being overly cautious or whatever, but every now and then I'll get alerts from fiction press.
Typically, they will be a follow from a random stranger and a send me a direct message that smells...bot written. Nothing overtly bad or sinister, but something feels off half of the time.

The most common one I get are artists looking for commission work, followed by other authors who want to 'colab' on a project. And while I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt, the exact wording smells fishy.

Almost none of them go into any detail about what 'moved' them in my story or what inspired them to contact me like this in the first place, so that makes it feel extra dodgy.

The reason I'm very suspicious, is that I am NOT active on fictionpress, like, hardly any, for many years. I DO have an 'active' account, as in I could log in and use it if I wanted, but it's been collecting dust since like, 2015 or so. So that's already kind of fishy on it's own.

Happens to me alot on DeviantArt. I genuinely want to collaborate with other writers and artists, but these scammers are like rats gnawing at the ropes of the ships docked in the bay of imagination. Most of the ones I get are wanting whats sounds like some kind of money laundering. They say they just love some AI generated thing I've posted (I don't post my original art, too many thieves online) and that some rich company contacted them to do a random art project, and if I would agree they'll send me a check, I take my portion out after I scan the check on some other piece of tech like a laptop, then send them the rest of the money for the supplies for the project.

I'm not stupid so I ask, every single time, why can't the company just send two checks, one to me for the art and one to them for their supplies? They block me every time. Scam

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Happens to me alot on DeviantArt. I genuinely want to collaborate with other writers and artists, but these scammers are like rats gnawing at the ropes of the ships docked in the bay of imagination. Most of the ones I get are wanting whats sounds like some kind of money laundering. They say they just love some AI generated thing I've posted (I don't post my original art, too many thieves online) and that some rich company contacted them to do a random art project, and if I would agree they'll send me a check, I take my portion out after I scan the check on some other piece of tech like a laptop, then send them the rest of the money for the supplies for the project.

I'm not stupid so I ask, every single time, why can't the company just send two checks, one to me for the art and one to them for their supplies? They block me every time. Scam

Some people make a game out of the scam commission artists that do stuff like that. And get them to draw silly stuff before telling them that they know this is a scam. I've been contacted by a few artists like that but I've never been brave enough to troll them like that at the risk they ask for some kind of information.

 

[Josh2Write]

Some people make a game out of the scam commission artists that do stuff like that. And get them to draw silly stuff before telling them that they know this is a scam. I've been contacted by a few artists like that but I've never been brave enough to troll them like that at the risk they ask for some kind of information.

I know it's a scam because it all AI generated and they praise it like it's an original piece, even after I tell them it AI.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I know it's a scam because it all AI generated and they praise it like it's an original piece, even after I tell them it AI.

Yep, as the others have said any time it's 'out of the blue' it's most certainly a scam. The only time I'd not consider it a scam is if I contacted that person first.
But then there are a lot of 'scam' self publishing companies too, that charge insane prices for like the most basic stuff. When I was looking into self 'affordable' publishing I saw way too many 'too good to be true' self publishing websites and then looked at their prices, yeah no, I'd rather wait for a proper publisher.

 

[Michael Terrance]

I don't know if I'm being overly cautious or whatever, but every now and then I'll get alerts from fiction press.
Typically, they will be a follow from a random stranger and a send me a direct message that smells...bot written. Nothing overtly bad or sinister, but something feels off half of the time.

The most common one I get are artists looking for commission work, followed by other authors who want to 'colab' on a project. And while I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt, the exact wording smells fishy.

Almost none of them go into any detail about what 'moved' them in my story or what inspired them to contact me like this in the first place, so that makes it feel extra dodgy.

The reason I'm very suspicious, is that I am NOT active on fictionpress, like, hardly any, for many years. I DO have an 'active' account, as in I could log in and use it if I wanted, but it's been collecting dust since like, 2015 or so. So that's already kind of fishy on it's own.

I have experienced the same on another site. Posted a short story & had some really nice compliments immediately from 4 or 5 "people," but each of them also offered their services to illustrate my cover art and/or turn my story into a "graphic novel." That would be difficult to do, given that it is less than 3,000 words.

 

[pmmg]

Probaby facebook