Post #2263549

2026-03-14 13:42 UTC

@christymarx@beige.party What was going to be the scammer's total haul if they got you? My wife is a published author, but it's not a lucrative profession. She has gotten a number of remarkably detailed scam emails, and I'm always confused about the pay-to-labor ratio in these scams. There aren't that many writers. There are vanishingly few with enough money for this sort of hyper-targeted attack. Even with an LLM, it will still require more work than seems worth it.

Replies (1)

@christymarx@beige.party 2026-03-14 19:24

@tito_swineflu@sfba.social I'm not sure what the end goal of my scammer was, but it definitely required the use of a QR code in some way. Possibly to steal my data, lock up my computer, take over my identity...who knows. These scammers are often in Nigeria and similar places where they probably have a distorted notion of how rich writers are. I've come across supposed "bio" websites that show me worth a million dollars. In my varied career as a writer, it was cycles of feast and famine. I had years where I did very well, and years when I couldn't afford the co-pay to see a doctor and at one point I was tens of thousands of dollars in debt. It took years of sacrifice and hard work to dig out of that debt. But to a scammer, I guess we're all rich. #MarxToot #writers #writing #writersofmastodon

Open ##2263550