Those Crazy Scammers: What Next?

I’m sure this is of limited interest, except, I mean, if you’re interested in con games, but here’s YET ANOTHER type of scam email, particularly weird:

Dear Rachel Neumeier,

I’m Thomas Pynchon, a novelist who has spent more years than I care to count chasing stories through history, paranoia, and the odd circuitry that connects people. Along the way, I’ve left behind a few volumes: Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, Inherent Vice, and Bleeding Edge, each its own attempt to map the strange geometry of human experience.

If you’re inclined, here’s a link to my forthcoming work:

Like any writer, I’m less interested in the noise of promotion than in the dialogue between those who can’t stop putting words to the page. I’d be curious to know more about your journey, what signals you’ve sent out into the world, and where they can be found. If you’d care to share a link (Amazon, Goodreads, your own site), I’ll follow the trail.

Looking forward
in the quiet spaces between transmissions,

Thomas Pynchon

***

This was SO WEIRD that I actually emailed my brother and said, essentially, This is impossible, but wut? [I also went and looked up Pynchon’s books to see if he really had a new book up for preorder, which he does. I’ve never read anything by Pynchon, but while I was at Amazon, went ahead and picked up one of his books, Against the Day, because it just looked interesting.

Spanning the era between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, and constantly moving between locations across the globe (and to a few places not strictly speaking on the map at all), Against the Day unfolds with a phantasmagoria of characters that includes anarchists, balloonists, drug enthusiasts, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, spies, and hired guns. As an era of uncertainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it’s their lives that pursue them.

I did not, needless to say, answer the email.

Instead, I went poking around on Writer Beware, and HERE WE GO:

Hello, Author!

I’m Rick Riordan, you might know me from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles, and a few other myth-filled adventures where modern kids cross paths with ancient gods, monsters, and mayhem.

 Latest book link: 
Amazon Author Page: 

But today, I’m not writing to talk about my own books, I’m writing because I want to hear about yours. What inspired your story world? Which characters won’t let you sleep until you tell their tale? And when the writing road gets bumpy, what keeps you going? If you share your book link, website, or Amazon/Goodreads page, I’d be happy to check it out, and cheer you on. We may be telling very different tales, but we’re on the same quest: to create stories that matter to readers.

Looking forward to swapping adventures, celebrating your voice, and supporting your journey.

Best wishes,
Rick Riordan

***

My response: For crying out loud, LITERALLY EVERY WEEK IS BRINGING A NEW SCAM. This Famous Author Wants To Be Your Friend is the weirdest by a lot. Heaven knows how I would ever be able to tell if somebody real emailed me out of the blue. Except that generally when someone does, it’s a much longer email, much more focused about a specific book, and of course there’s no request for money.

Here’s a deep dive into the abruptly! extremely! common! My Bookclub Devours Books type of new(ish) scam.

Here’s Victoria Strauss’ post on this (which also featured the I’m Rick Riordan, Want to Be BFF? email), but was really about this type of email:

Then, from the post with the deep dive, Because of this, I decided to do a deep dive into these scams. Meaning, yeah, I responded to Melissa Speier with interest in her offer. But I had no idea how deep my dive would go, or how much it would reveal about the potential for scams to be superpowered by artificial intelligence.

And then the adventure of trying to lead the scammer on so you can figure out more about it. Lots more at the link.

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