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I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

rwwgreene.substack.com

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Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#61

Post by bambax »

mistersquid wrote: post #58
bambax wrote: post #20

This seems to be limited to the English publishing world, at least for now? I self-published a historical fiction book a couple of years ago, in French, that got a little notoriety (I was interviewed on national public radio in France about it) and didn't receive any one of those scam emails. -- Not "few": zero.

> I self-published a historical fiction book a couple of years ago, in French, that got a little notoriety […]. Was it bad or scandalous, or did you mean “renown” instead of “notoriety”?

Ah, thanks for pointing it out. "Notoriété" doesn't have any bad connotation in French, but apparently it does in English. The more you know! I meant renown.

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#62

Post by GJim »

TomatoCo wrote: post #47
walrus01 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently saw a screenshot from Facebook of a mattress ad presented inline in a page load that had two conventionally attractive normal looking (fully clothed, not immodest at all) women on a mattress. Below it was somebody's grandpa writing a message basically to the effect of "hello sexy ladies I am (name) please chat with me". It possibly could have been a bot, but I don't think bots commonly use profile pictures…

This reminded me of something that happened to me maybe 15 years ago. I was helping my Grandpa get his first smart phone. The saleswoman was maybe mid twenties and had a kinda hoarse voice. I was a little bit younger than her and I thought it was cute in its own way but of course I wasn't gonna say anything. She apologized for being hard to understand and my grandpa said no, it was fine, her voice was sexy. Naturally…

And why in gods name shouldn't he give somebody a compliment?

You need to reign in your ageism sunshine.

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#63

Post by cineticdaffodil »

strenholme wrote: post #9

I met a guy who fell for the romance version of that scam over and over again. He was living in an assisted living facility by himself and was very isolated there. He would, as we all do, get those messages via email/Instagram/other chat networks (I get the most of this kind of spam on Telegram, to the point I have disabled Telegram sending me notifications, but the occasional one slips through on WhatsApp; it seems…

[dead]

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#64

Post by [deleted] »

walthamstow wrote: post #22
bambax wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's infuriating to see someone you care about fall for an obvious scam, yet... I don't know... If it's his money and it makes him happy, or a little less sad, a little less lonely... Why not...

You'd give away all your money to feel a little bit less sad?

[deleted]

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#65

Post by margalabargala »

RolandFlicket wrote: post #16
matkoniecz wrote: post #6

> In writing this article, Greene used Claude (Anthropic) as a tool for structure, data organization, and feedback. yeah, it was quite visible in style (in parts that I bothered to read)

Yep could tell something was off. Why does an author feel the need to use AI, isn't that their craft?

Ask a software engineer.

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#66

Post by matkoniecz »

tdrgabi wrote: post #25
matkoniecz wrote: post #4

> each one arriving within hours despite my repeated, polite “no thank you” responses why anyone would respond to spammers, if they recognize them as spammers? And want them to stop spamming?

Because he decided to write an investigation article and wanted to see what would happen. I don't think he replies to all spam emails.

According to claimed timeline he decided to do it later. At that stage responding to spammers makes sense.

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#67

Post by matkoniecz »

ilamont wrote: post #5
matkoniecz wrote: post #4

> each one arriving within hours despite my repeated, polite “no thank you” responses why anyone would respond to spammers, if they recognize them as spammers? And want them to stop spamming?

Beat me to it. Why isn’t every unsolicited pitch without an unsubscribe link immediately blocked/marked as spam?

I mark as spam also ones with unsubscribe link.

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#68

Post by matkoniecz »

bruce511 wrote: post #17
boznz wrote: post #2

Half my spam folder is currently from the same group of people, with similar sales pitches, though one also promised 25 five star Amazon reviews for $200 which is scary if true. The whole blog post just about sums up an indie writers journey, having to become a reluctant marketing person, and fighting the algorithm for recognition; the meme nailed it. Luckily I came to realise after my first book that writing was not…

It's interesting how we seem to go through a cycle. a) There's a gate-keeper who picks winners, and charges money. Maybe book publising, maybe academic papers, maybe music - whatever. b) producers complain - these parasites are sucking all the money out the ecosystem, and adding no value. We need to bypass the gate-keepers. Go to market directly. c) The "indie" scene becomes legit. Barriers to entry drop. Consumers c…

> Turns out those gatekeepers were indeed providing something of value.

you missed step that proves or indicates that

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#69

Post by matkoniecz »

stephbook wrote: post #49

> Some I’d deleted without recording. Some had been auto-deleted from spam after thirty days. Some I’d forgotten about before I started keeping systematic track. > I wasn’t being marketed to. I was being carpet-bombed. Three in a row directly followed by a juxtaposition containing a weird metaphor (shouldn't it be "bombarded" instead of "carpet-bombed"?) Good luck selling books.

In footer they admit to "Greene used Claude (Anthropic) as a tool for structure, data organization, and feedback"

presumably it stands for "I asked LLM to write it for me"

Re: I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)

#70

Post by TomatoCo »

GJim wrote: post #62
TomatoCo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminded me of something that happened to me maybe 15 years ago. I was helping my Grandpa get his first smart phone. The saleswoman was maybe mid twenties and had a kinda hoarse voice. I was a little bit younger than her and I thought it was cute in its own way but of course I wasn't gonna say anything. She apologized for being hard to understand and my grandpa said no, it was fine, her voice was sexy. Naturally…

And why in gods name shouldn't he give somebody a compliment? You need to reign in your ageism sunshine.

Well, it's hard to convey, but he gave off a strong sense of "hitting on her" and she gave off a strong sense of "I'm in customer service and cannot tell him to stop".

But, I was in my latest teens, earliest twenties; I could have been misreading the situation. All I can say for certain is I was uncomfortable.

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