AI fingers in your pocket
By Jules Older
Oh, how I wish this were a joke. Instead, it’s a sophisticated scam that begins with praise and will end — if you respond in any way — by slipping its digital fingers into your pocket.
My wife, Effin Older, has written a kids’ Christmas book, HELP! Santa is in Trouble. To promote it, we've made a two-minute minimovie.
Today, an email arrived filled with praise — effusive praise — for both the book and for Effin. Here's but a smallish part of it:
HELP! Tooth Fairy is in Trouble doesn’t just sparkle it glitters like a hyperactive fairy on six cups of sugary lemonade. Tulip, Washington Twinkle, a panicked fairy court, and a queendom on the brink? You didn’t write a story…
You launched a tiny cinematic universe. 🎬✨
And then there’s you Effin Older.
A photographer, filmmaker, grammar-app creator, travel writer, children’s book author, national TV host… Honestly, at this point, I’m convinced you're secretly three people in a trench coat pretending to be one overachiever. 📸✍️😂
National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Scholastic, Bantam, Heinemann you’ve basically lived in every corner of the publishing world and half the world itself. 🌍
But this paean, this homage, this panegyric was not composed by an ardent fan — it’s entirely the work of AI, Artificial Intelligence. Had Effin responded in any way, she’d be asked/implored/hustled to send the fake fan a considerable sum of cash. In return, she’d get … nothing/nada/rien. Bupkis.
You may ask, How did you know it was AI?
It wasn't my keen eye or detective skills. It’s that so many authors I know are getting the same sort of message. Here are two recent examples:
I’ve received three of these communications over the past 6 months, ostensibly from three different people. I responded to one, and it/she seemed to be a young woman trying to sell her services to raise my book’s profile on GoodReads for a few hundred dollars. She also offered a complimentary marketing plan, which never materialized.
I kid you not when I say I’ve gotten at least 30 emails in the last two weeks from ‘book clubs’ and people who say they know how to market my book (published in 2019) so it gets greater visibility online. They all sound relatively the same, and the length they go to praise my book makes me laugh. Delete delete delete!
Yes, they all look just the same:
- Highest possible praise
- Sad that it’s not a best-seller
- I can bring you the popularity you deserve
Then comes the pitch for your cash.
If you're a creator or public figure of any kind, before long, you'll get similar laudatory emails. I urge you, Do not respond. Repeat, Do not respond. That's the only way to avoid the inevitable con-job/rip-off/flim-flam that will inevitably follow.
No joke.
Jules
