The New Goodreads Scam Seems Particularly Dumb

I’ve been getting a lot more friend requests from blank profiles on Goodreads. You know the ones, no picture and no books. Perhaps six friends. The names don’t make a whole lot of sense, but I wouldn’t judge that alone. They end up being scam profiles though. I couldn’t figure out what use those would be on Goodreads…until I looked at one of the emails I’d automatically deleted.

You see, I get requests simultaneously as an email, a notification on the web site if I actually visit that, and as a notice on the mobile app. Usually I just end up rejecting on the mobile app, which meant I didn’t see the message that went along with.

Why pay attention? Usually there isn’t one.

However, then I noticed that there was for ALL of these new blank profile ones that were showing up, a couple a day. They all included links to scam sites purportedly offering free (obviously pirate if it wasn’t just a scam to get credit card or other personal information in the first place) ebooks. The worst part? THEY WERE FOR BOOKS THAT GOODREADS SHOWED I ALREADY READ!

What the heck are the scammers doing? Looking to see who read a book and then trying to hook them for a free ecopy of the same thing? Isn’t it likely that the person is done with that book if they don’t already actually have a real copy? Who thought this up?

Now, it is possible that it is just a coincidence that I’ve read all the books they’ve tried to interest me in. Perhaps they don’t target and it’s just the fact I read a bit. I don’t know, but it just seems dumber than the average scam.

I hope Goodreads bothers to figure out a way to shut this down soon. It’s annoying.