7 Comments
User's avatar
Maybe I'm Amazed - Kate Evans's avatar

REFRESHMENTS??? LOL! Actually, I've gotten a lot of email like this and just deleted them--and I'm on writers' groups where people share these. So from the start, I'd know it's a scam. But the TRUE red flag is ANY MENTION of money.

Teodora's avatar

I wouldn't bother wasting time on that conversation. It alone is a huge waste of time and energy. I'm not sure what you would benefit from a book club as an author. You'd be better off focusing on your marketing efforts elsewhere and meeting readers during actual literary evens. That's what most authors do.

It's good that you reported this and shared it.

Chris Englert (EatWalkLearn)'s avatar

Being a full-time traveler, the thought of zooming into a book club is appealing. Word of mouth for fiction can be huge. The FB book club that Ava referenced actually had an 800 person membership in its Meetup form. So the idea was tempting and could have been lucrative. If it were real...nice to hear from you Teodora!

Teodora's avatar

800 members! Yeah that sounds tempting. If it was real...

Tom's avatar

Chris;

I have been using AI for first level research for many topics and the responses I get are much like the responses you received, although I have not noticed any typos. But then I am initiating the contact. AI is definitely getting sophisticated. If AI can be used to track down Latinos to deport based on surnames, well....

If there are any typos in these comments it is because I am a lousy typist. But then a good AI phisher would say that.

Chris Englert (EatWalkLearn)'s avatar

At first, I thought, hum, this might be interesting. And the fact that the club was on FB, I thought perhaps it was real. But soon, it wasn't. I enjoyed the fun, but I could see how this could catch a lot of people, especially authors who just want to get some attention on their books.

Katherine Schneider's avatar

I highly recommend the podcast “Shell Game” particularly the second season where a startup company of all AI agents sounds exactly like this. But worse! And funnier too. Thank for sharing