This metaphor extends to authorship. When writers put their egos on the line through their books, they make themselves vulnerable. They become vulnerable to all kinds of promotion blandishments, publishing deals, and marketing schemes–good and bad, legal and not. . And that includes phishing.
What Is Phishing?
Behavioral scientists describe the term as “a form of social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information about themselves. installing malware such as viruses, worms, [etc.]” For our purposes, it involves playing upon the ego and gullibility of wirters and authors to spend money on worthless or nonexistent entities and promotions designed to promote their writings.
An Author Anecdote
This issue wasn’t a problem until my books appeared for sale on my Facebook and Google business pages. My newsletter piece celebrating National Unfriend Day in the November issue describes how scammers began inquiring about promoting my books to various reading groups.
Reading Group Inquiries
Interestingly, the first approach came from an alleged reading group came from a library in Glasgow, Scotland. The scammer said all the right things, how much he admired my book, Mission: Soul Saacrifice, how much he admired its premise, and how it fit perfectly his group’s reading interests.
The Flashing Red Light
Knowing British readers seem more attuned to fantasy and supernatural themes, proceeding to the next step seemed the logical thing to do. Logical, that is, until he asked for advance money for “promotional purposes.” My involvements with most book groups in the States don’t require any upfront advance before making a personal appearance either in person or via a Zoom call.
This red light prompted a call the Library with which the group was allegely associated. The reference librarian there declared he had never heard of such a group. So, I declined their offer and thought that was the end of it.
But, no. Soon, groups all over the United States and elsewhere requested my appearing before their reading groups–money in advance, of course. Perhaps, these blandishments were due to pressure of the upcoming holidays. Or, it may have resulted from or the sharing of my information over the Internet. But, no matter how many requests I deleted in my mailbox, more kept coming in.
Phishing Detection
Most of these phony requests were easy enough to spot. Some wanted to promote novels I’d written over twenty years ago. Others addressed me last name first, i.e. Dear Mr. Fietzer William or not at all. One addressed me properly, contained all the correct details, and in the proper order. However, they appeared in a font different from that of the inquiry–clearly a cut-and-paste job.
The Boldest Author Phishing Incident
But a request from a reading group in Melbourne, Australia topped the others for deception and sheer gall. A check on the veracity of the request uncovered a legitimate reading group existed in Melbourne. It turned out to be the headquarters of a world-wide network of reading groups, one located in Indianapolis. The request for appearance apparently came from the group president herself.
Only, the inquiry didn’t actually come from the president. Having been scorched several times, I queried the group’s contact person whether their president had contacted me about a Zoom call promotion. She replied the president told her she had not. This was the first time a scammer had impersonated the president of a real club to solicit funds from unwary authors.
What Can Be Done?
The president did provide a two-step list of actions to take (in Google) if readers or writers receive similar requests in the future. They are:
Report Phishing within Gmail (Desktop):
- Open the suspicious email in your inbox.
- Click the More icon (three dots) next to the Reply button.
- Select Report phishing.
Step 2
Report Fraudulent Activity to Google:
- Navigate to the Gmail abuse form in a web browse.
- Provide your contact information, the subject and body of the email, and any available message headers, which contain information about the email’s origin.
- Submit the report to Google.
Despite taking these actions, the president doubted these fraudulent perpetrators would be caught. However, the number and persistence of the requests I’ve received since then diminished significantly.
Author Phishing: Conclusions
It’s clear after this experience that a lot of scammers are out there willing to separate writers from their pocketbooks. True, they may act anonymously or impeersonate real people from legitimate institutions. However, most of the time their attempts are easy to spot. Or, uncovering their deceit is a simple matter of practicing due diligence.
Nonetheless, in this season of holiday commerce and gift-giving, it’s always wise to check what’s happening the other end of the phishing line. That promotional opportunity you’re about to land with a giddiness that someone’s finally interested in what you have to say? Watch out! It may leave you dangling from a scammer’s hook after fleecing you out of hundreds of dollars or more.
Take care.
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