I wrote a book about theft and deception – and now AI scams are flooding my inbox | Walter Marsh
TL;DR
Author Walter Marsh published a book about theft and deception – and almost immediately became the target of AI-generated scam emails.
Key Points
- A supposed 'Elena' sent him flowery praise and promises of exposure and reviews – a textbook AI-powered book scam.
- Such accounts are flooding authors' inboxes: automated, personalized, nearly indistinguishable from genuine readers.
- The self-publishing boom makes authors especially vulnerable – they crave visibility and are susceptible to seemingly real opportunities.
Nauti's Take
There's a bitter irony here: an author writes about human deception and is promptly deceived by machines that seem to know his work better than real readers do. It shows just how cynically AI is being deployed – not for creativity, but for the industrial exploitation of hope.
Publishers and platforms need to take responsibility and actively fight AI spam infrastructure rather than leaving individual authors to fend for themselves. Until that happens, 'Congratulations on your book' is the new phishing subject line.
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