Wow, AI sure is an asset to scammers

THIS MORNING ALONE I’ve received THREE emails targeting three different novels. Here they are:

Hi Rachel,

Eight Doors from Dawn to Midnight instantly caught my attention. The bond between Vích and Lahn, bound by curse and gift, fleeing a fate both mysterious and terrible feels both timeless and fresh. The themes of family, sacrifice, and power resonate deeply, and the looming danger of enemies who would exploit them adds a gripping intensity. It sounds like exactly the kind of fantasy that lingers with readers long after they’ve turned the final page.

I’m Austin, and I share powerful books like yours with a circle of over 2,000 engaged readers. These readers don’t just consume stories; they reflect, discuss, and amplify them through thoughtful reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations. I believe many of them would be captivated by the world you’ve created.

Would you be open to hearing more about how I can introduce Eight Doors from Dawn to Midnight to my readers?

Bold is mine. This is the part that is relatively new. Scammers are using AI to generate something specific about novels, which they then use in these spam emails. This line about “These readers don’t just consume stories” is surely generated; this particular line or something very similar has appeared in half a dozen spam emails I’ve received over the past month, so this becoming a super-common and typical presentation for this kind of scammer. Beats me why they say “2000 readers” as though that’s a lot.

***

Hey Rachel,

I know you’re busy, so I’ll keep this short. I’ve been thinking about the challenges authors face and wanted to ask you directly:

What takes up most of your time outside of actually writing?

The most common answers we hear are website headaches, getting books to reviewers, or feeling lost with online marketing.

Crewfiction exists to take that administrative burden off your plate.

We are offering free access to authors like yourself and you can claim it by following a 2-minute onboarding process [link].

This could be a legitimate service, but I suggest extreme caution with any so-called service that emails you out of the blue. I’ve been contacted by two services that seem to be real, but the number of scammers appears to be infinite, so the ratio of real to scammer is not in your favor if you aren’t cautious.

The interesting thing is that if you google “crewfiction,” it seems to be real; but if you look a little harder, then Google will also tell you this: On forums like Reddit, writers have reported unsolicited contact from individuals using the Crewfiction service in an attempt to run scams.

It’s the “unsolicited” bit that should always make you suspicious.

***

I hope this email finds you well. I saw your book “Silver Circle” on Amazon, it’s fantastic. We provide a unique platform to writers like you. Where we specialize in helping authors like you increase book sales and reviews of their work through targeted marketing campaigns and promotional strategies.

Features of our plan (Premium Plan):
1. We will feature your book in our Monday weekly newsletter. We send the newsletter to our 72K subscribers.
2. We will list your book on the Booksride Home page for one week.
Weekly Mockup Banners.
3. We will send out three Promotional tweets every day to our Twitter followers.
4. We will send out two Facebook posts every day.
5. We will send out 60 Instagram posts.
6. Your book will be listed on our site with the purchase link.

You can choose a book and promotion date according to your wish.

Submit your book here: [Link]. Let’s work together to bring your book the attention it deserves.

This is the old-fashioned type of scam email that was common before we started seeing all the new! improved! AI-generated emails that refer to your novel with more specificity than “it’s fantastic.” I see fewer of these now, and a lot more of the AI-type with the “readers that don’t just consume novels.”

Please Feel Free to Share: